Demon Duke Org
by Brago12716
Summary: Zen-Aku possesses Issei's body during the date with Raynare, now what'll happen when we put a duke org into the dxd universe and give him the boosted gear, who knows, but you might not want to miss this little thrill ride that takes you through the hilarity that is to follow.
1. From Pervert to Org

Demon Duke Org

Chapter 1

From Pervert to Org

Issei Hyoudou was, by all rights, the lowest of the low, he thought of nothing but women's breasts, seeing them, touching them, sucking them, poking them, anything you could think about doing with breasts, he thought about doing and that was all he thought about, a true pervert. He's been that way most of his life, along with his two friends, Matsuda and Motohama, they regularly find holes in the walls of the school they go to, Kuoh Academy, so that they can peak on the girls, and the holes, oddly enough, are usually all spying on girls, none for the boys. Not that the 'perverted trio' minded of course, Matsuda was known for having his camera ready and waiting for any girl parts that he sees, Motohama had the uncanny ability to gage a woman's breast size at a single glance, Issei was the self-proclaimed future harem king.

Added on to the fact that Issei was academically sub-par, below sub-par in the looks department, and it's no wonder why he has no girlfriend at the moment, "ugh, being a teenager is the worst, at this rate, jerking off to porn is the closest I'll ever get to doing it before college," he stated. He was currently leaning against the railings of a bridge with his left hand on his cheek and right forearm parallel with the railings, it was sunset now and he was on his way home, the more he thought, the more he felt defeated by life and so he let his head drop to the railing.

That is when he heard a soft voice call out, "excuse me, you're Issei Hyoudou from Kuoh Academy, right, or am I wrong," he looked up and over to see a wonderfully hot chick from a school he didn't recognize going by the uniform, but since she was smoking hot, he only nodded. She seemed nervous after seeing his nod, "hi, I uh… I just wanted to ask you a quick question: are you seeing anyone right now," and he couldn't believe this was happening, a girl was interested if he was dating someone, was this a love confession, so obviously his answer was no. "That's wonderful, uh.. in that case… since you're single… do you think you'd like to go out with me," he was stunned, "I've been watching you pass by here a lot and you seem so… I don't know… gentle… and very handsome and I- see… the thing is- I'd like for you to be my boyfriend"

What was the boy to say, this hot girl actually came up to him to confess, he said the only thing there was to say, "sure, that sounds great," he exclaimed with a little too much enthusiasm, "what about next Sunday, how does that sound for a good first date," he asked the girl.

She looked to have felt so relieved when he said that and put a hand over her chest, "it's a date then… night," she said leaning into his face, the only thing he could do was wave, her uniform looked so tight that it showed him an idea of what her breasts look like, she left with a smile.

When she was gone, he jumped around and pumped his fist in the air, left while calling himself the man and was so excited, he'd been dreaming and planning this day out from the day he discovered girls, this was going to be the best date ever, he would make damn sure of that. Yet, he was so excited that he missed the little white haired girl coming out form around the corner and into full view of anyone who looked her way, she was eating a popsicle while watching the two, she obviously knew something that the pervert did not.

The pervert went home and made sure his date was perfectly planned out, only, he didn't have her contact info, he was ready to scream when he felt something in his pocket, how he didn't catch it was beyond him, so he took it out and read it over, it was that girl's contact info. That tricky little minx must have slipped it in when he wasn't looking, the first thought he had was 'if she was that good with her hands, what else is she good at,' he let out a perverted giggle before saving the contact info to his phone, he couldn't wait to rub it in his friend's nose.

On the other side of town however, the one who asked him out, the one that chose Yuma as her fake name, was walking into an abandoned church in the school uniform she'd stolen to trick the perverted boy, the plan was so simple, gain the simpleton's trust, go on a date with the boy. Then finally, at the end of the date at dusk, hence why she chose Yuma as her fake name, she would kill the poor fool, at least the human would have one good memory before his death, he didn't feel strong or special, he probably didn't have sacred gear, but better safe than sorry.

This girl suddenly grew in height and let her assets grow, her face matured a little bit and then she let her uniform drop down and sink into her skin as she let a black ooze form around her breasts and private area to make a leather bikini type attire with black stockings and long gloves. She unfolded her black wings and let them stretch with a sigh from being confined all day, this was the fallen angel Raynare, ordered to watch one Issei Hyoudou and make sure he's not a threat and will never become one, easiest way to do that is to just kill him right off the bat. Yet, instead of just killing him, Raynare had this little habit of toying with her targets, she enjoys watching them as they have a good time, then crushing them by fully taking away their hope that the date was good and there would be another, or that he'd live to see another day.

"So," a voice said from behind a column on the right to the stage, out came a dark blue haired fallen angel in a maroon trench coat-like top with a wide collar, matching miniskirt, and black heeled shoes, "did you kill him or do we have to wait to give Kokabiel our report on his status."

"You know that I like to play with my food before I eat," Raynare said with a smirk while she continued to walk and moved the stone podium out of the way with ease to reveal a hidden passage, "I'll kill him Sunday at dusk, that is why I chose Yuma after all, such a poetic death."

"Yes, ever the poet," the woman, Kalawarner, said dryly as she followed after her comrade down the steps, it really irked her how she toyed with the targets so much, if she was a betting woman, she'd bet that Raynare's habit of toying with them will come back to bite all of them in the ass.

* * *

Sunday

Issei was waiting outside of a mall at the corner beside of a map for Yuma, "she should have gotten here by now, shouldn't she," he commented once he realized the time, he was in a dark blue collar shirt with a dark grey over shirt over that, blue jeans, and finally brown shoes.

"Here, take a flyer," some woman just shoved a piece of paper in his hands, looking over he saw a girl in a short yet puffy dress, black choker with red lace, and brown hair that resembled a bat's wings, she held a red handbag with white straps, she just smiled before walking off.

"Oh goody, wonder what this is about," Issei commented before looking at the paper, "'your wish will be granted', eh, yeah right… if only that were true," he said sarcastically, he put the paper in his pocket as he looked to the left and saw Yuma, "oh cool, you made it, I'm glad that you came."

He perved out a little at what he said, only he was able to do it in his head while he remained smiling pleasantly on the outside, Raynare on the other hand had to hide her disgust at what she knew he was thinking in that perverted head of his, but held it in and looked like the innocent Yuma. The began walking around the outside mall area and began their date, it was mainly walking around the various stores and window-shopping, going inside stores that held something interesting, stopping at a stand that looked interesting, and just enjoying the company of each other. Issei even got Yuma a nice little pink, puffy bracelet, it went nice with her white shirt with black trim and black skirt, they began walking again when they then went to a small restaurant and got something to eat, he perved out a little because he could see her cleavage, but went well.

After that they began walking again and that is when Yuma saw it, it looked like an ordinary wolf mask, that is, if you ignored the fancy design that made it look so much more valuable, the red jewels just where the eyebrows knitted together, and the purple jewel on the forehead. To anyone else that looked like an ordinary wolf mask, but to Raynare, she felt the power the mask held, she could tell that it was a cursed mask, a really powerful cursed mask, one that would kill any human that would dare put on the mask, so she had a wonderful idea. Kokabiel was getting mad that she was taking so long, wanting her to kill the boy and be done with it and mad at her for not just killing him, so why not take the mask, let it kill the boy to test out her theory, then bring the mask back to Azazel screwing over that jerk Kokabiel. Not only that, but she didn't have to waste her own power in forming a light spear, she could easily just let the mask kill the boy and take all the credit for a brilliant plan, she just has to trick the idiot boy into buying it for her, buying his own instrument of death, what wonderful ideas she has.

"Issei," Yuma said in the shyest voice that she could muster, Issei looked at her to see what's wrong, "you see that mask in the shop window," she pointed to it and Issei followed her finger to the most badass looking mask he'd ever seen, "I'm a collector, but, my family doesn't support it. So if I hand you some money, can you please go buy it for me," she looked down to reach into her purse, when she looked up, the mask was right in front of her, the boy just went inside and bought it for her, "you didn't have to do that, I would have given you the money," acting innocent.

"No way, how bad would that look if I didn't buy my girlfriend something that she wanted, if your family doesn't support you, then I'll support you no matter what," Issei said while trying to act cool, it was a very sweet and kind gesture, of course a naïve boy like him would do that.

"Thank you so much," she said sweetly, they continued to walk after that, right until it reached sunset, they took a shortcut through the park, "I sure had fun today," Yuma said as they were walking, she was almost giddy with excitement, this mask was sure to be powerful.

"Yeah, this was the best date ever," he said back, their hands grazed each other as they were walking, he thought that this might be his best chance, so he held her hand as they walked towards the water fountain, they were a few meters away when Yuma let go for a moment.

The reason she let go was so that she could run up a little ways so Raynare could enact her plan, "can you do something for me, in honor of our first date there's something I'd like to do… to commemorate this special moment," she stepped closer and closer as she talked. This was it for Issei, of course, that meant two different things to the two, for Raynare, it meant the boy's death, for Issei, it meant that he'd finally get to kiss a girl instead of imagining it, you can imagine his disappointment then when Yuma pulled out a camera from seemingly nowhere. "Let's take a picture," she hooked with his right arm enough to show the bracelet he'd gotten, "why don't you wear the mask, it'd be a shame if we didn't get it in the picture," she pulled the mask out of her bag and with a smile he took it, but if you looked close enough, the smile was forced.

Issei really wanted that kiss instead, but if what she wanted was a picture with the gifts, who was he to deny her, "sure Yuma, I'd be happy to," she posed before he was ready and he hurriedly put the mask on and immediately felt the effects, his eyes widened in the immediate effects he felt. He pushed Yuma away in case it harmed her as well, his skin felt like it was on fire, blood boiling, he could feel his body growing and his fingernails extending, growing into claws that dug into his head as he grabbed the sides of his head, the never ending drum pounding against his temples.

Raynare on the other hand, felt something different, her hope of killing him with the mask blew up into smoke as she realized the type of cursed mask it was, a soul was trapped inside of it, turning whoever wore it into a powerful warrior, erasing his old personality with the warrior's. That was nowhere near preferable, if it was just a power amplification mask of some sort, then she'd use him and turn him into a weapon for her faction, Issei was already too weak for her to work with, and it would take too much time to train him to grow stronger, but not now. Before, she could have used just power amplification and than turned him, but with the cursed mask turning him into a new person, she couldn't risk this new warrior getting in her factions way, so there was no other choice but to kill this unknown factor.

She thought all this in the moments of his transformation, so she transformed into her fallen form and made the protective field that would proved cover from the devils, in a flash she made a spear of light and ran the final transformation through where she thought the gut might be. Sometime during her thoughts the boy grew in height and turned dark and covered in shadow, Issei's voice turned deeper and sounded like he was screaming with a howling growl, but when he was stabbed, the voice stopped and the shadows receded to reveal the form of the warrior.

He was one of the most fearsome beasts she had seen once she saw his full form, his feet was covered in black boots that could be mistaken for wolf paws, black leather pants was covered by black shin and knee guards, that was covered by a open in the front skirt reaching lower shin. His belt was leather with a silver pentagon pointed down with a yellow circle in the middle, his upper body was covered in a black shirt, arms had black gauntlets, shoulder pads, a breastplate that, now that she looked closer, only covered his breasts and left his abs showing. His mask had changed to stretch past his face and cover his ears, hair changed to a dark silver that flowed behind him, his eyes were the only visible facial feature he had, a deep amber that felt primal, the last feature present was the oddest, he had a horn sticking form his forehead.

Something was wrong though, the beast wasn't dying yet, "well, I have to admit, I didn't expect you to survive being stabbed in the gut with a spear of light," she said as the beast's eyes narrowed at her and sent a shiver down her spine, she quickly summoned another spear. This one she implanted into his back just above the first one, he growled a bit as he powered through the pain, Raynare growled in frustration, "WHY WON'T YOU DIE," she yelled as she made yet another spear and stabbed it again above the one in the back, this time in the gut.

This time he let a howl of pain out, his knees went weak and he fell on them, the fallen angel had to crouch with him, the spears dissipated and the blood flowed freely, she rose and made to step away before her throat was caught in a flash by the wolf beast, but the grip wasn't a strong one.

"Is that it," she sneered reaching over to take the wolf hand from around her throat, she pulled on his arm hard and sent him slamming into the ground, "for a minute you scared me with how long it took to kill you, but in the end you died just like everyone else, on the ground bleeding." She spread her wings out and got ready to leave, she stayed there watching him, he was trying hard to get off his stomach, getting to his hands and knees before falling back down, "I'd laugh at your attempt to live if it wasn't so sad and pathetic, bye little boy," she took off into the skies.

The wolf beast was on the ground in agony as the sky turned back into the fading sunset, he was fading in and out of consciousness from the blood loss, the only thing keeping his alive right now was his pure will power, but even that was starting to fade at this point, yet he kept trying. "I will not," he growled out as he started to move his right hand to where his right pants pocket would be, "go back to being a mask," the hand touched where he remembered he put that flyer, "this might not work with that weakling, but for me, HEAR MY WISH AND HEAL ME."

That scream seemed to be the last of his strength, for he blacked out and missed the glow coming from his pocket and the flyer ripping from the pocket of the boy he was possessing, it glowed a powerful red before an intricate magic circle appeared and lowered to the ground. As it lowered it revealed the humanoid form of a teenage girl with red hair wearing the Kuoh academy student outfit of a long-sleeved button-down shirt with vertical striped accents, a button-down corset with a black collar ribbon and a magenta skirt with stockings and brown dress shoes.

This was Rias Gremory and she was not happy about the summons, she was supposed to wait and see if Issei Hyoudou was negatively targeted by the fallen or if they were planning to recruit him to their ranks thanks to his sacred gear, and if targeted, possibly summon her to help. This little summons put a damper on that likelihood in case Issei needed immediate help, but she stopped that mini tirade at what she saw, it was a creature the likes of which she had never seen before, it looked like a humanoid wolf with a horn coming out of its forehead wearing black armor. It was bleeding out fast, she was already at its side and decided to do a quick analysis on it, what she found was the most shocking thing so far, this thing was Issei Hyoudou, or was at one point, his power was off the charts and his sacred gear was still inside of him.

"Unbelievable, to think that someone took three stab wounds to kill, was it from the monster or the person underneath," Rias stated out in the open, as she laid her hand on him and he stirred from her touch, "what, he isn't even dead yet, this is incredible," she knew what she had to do. She took out all her pieces to see what exactly she needed to use to reincarnate him, knight was a no, rook was a rejected, bishop didn't work, and a single pawn was too weak, but when she used all eight of her pawns, two of them turned into mutation pieces.

This was unheard of to her, for someone to be worth not one but two mutation pieces, plus six more pawns, the most versatile and potentially most dangerous piece, just what was this creature to be able to accomplish such a feat, and why had it taken over the form of Issei Hyoudou. She chose not to think about it as she used a illusion spell that lasted twenty-four hours to turn him back into Issei before teleporting him and her to his house, he landed on his bed, she left a note in case he desired to eat the parents of the boy he was taking over before leaving.

* * *

The next morning

The beast woke up to the sound of, "wake up or I shall kill you dead, wake up bitch, or I'll chop off your balls," he barely registered what that was before he summoned his dagger flute and put an end to it with a quick stab, it was just above his head at the moment and ended the alarm. He opened his eyes to the world and raised from a lying on the back position, he scowled at what he was seeing, he saw posters littered with all kinds of perverted scenes and lewd women lining the walls of the room he was in, it was clearly the perverts room, his current host. He quickly realized that he didn't look like he normally did, but instead looked like Issei while in his Kuoh academy uniform, but he could still feel his dark wolf armor on, he could feel his horn, so he quickly came to the conclusion that this was an illusion cast over him to keep up appearances.

He rose from the bed and spotted a note on his dresser addressed to 'wolf beast' in neat hand writing, he walked over and picked it up, opened it, and began reading what was written, it was just something to tell him that the family he lived with shouldn't be killed if he was that kind of monster. It also just said that if he wants answers, to just go to school like he was and wait until after his classes, she'd be sending someone to lead him to her so she could explain everything, and it also warned him not to make a mess or start any trouble, he didn't know what powers there are. He ripped the note apart, he'd play this little game for now, but if he didn't like what she has to say, he'd just leave and roam around, he's always been a lone wolf anyway and if this was part of a ploy to get him to join in a team, he'd rather stay out of it and not get involved with them.

Since he retained the memories from this host for some reason, he knew where everything was, knew how to interact with the people to possibly keep his cover, but he'd never do that, not with the way the boy was, no he'd still remain himself until this woman could explain things to him. With that in mind, he got his brown leather case and headed out of his room, passing by the boy's parents as he went, they tried to talk to him, something about breakfast, then yelling for him to pay attention, 'GET BACK HERE' he thought he heard one yell, but he ignored and left the house.

He calmly walked to school and didn't look anywhere except straight ahead, never moved his eyes and changed positions with his bag, he stayed like that until he got to school, didn't greet anybody or even look at them, his host's friends came up to him to ask why he's acting so weird. He only walked past them before stopping and looking back over his shoulder with a glare, he grounded out, "never talk to me again," before turning to look forward again, he began walking as he said, "pathetic perverts," and didn't give their tear filled eyes another look as he walked to class.

When everyone else got to class they began whispering at how he was acting, he just stayed in his seat in the back with crossed arms and bowed head, didn't look up the entire time and didn't even blink when the teacher yelled at him to pay attention until finally the teacher ignored him. After the school day ended came the final bell, and he just set there waiting until he heard a commotion coming from the door, he looked over and saw the resident pretty boy of the school, Kiba Yuuto walking over to his seat and making all the girls cry out in warning for the prince.

"Hello, I'm Kiba Yuuto, I'm here on an errand from Rias Gremory, would you mind coming with me," Kiba said politely and with a smile, the wolf beast in disguise calmly stood up and didn't even cast a second glance as he followed Kiba out, ignoring the cries of outrage from the girls.

They both kept quiet as they walked, nor did either of them even acknowledge the other's presence, a few times they were stopped by Kiba's numerous fangirls, much to the wolf's annoyance, so it took a little while to reach their destination of the old school building. When they were inside they headed for the room where the meeting was to held, it was a nice little room, it looked to be a high class meeting room with a big desk, two couches facing each other, a table between the two, and apparently a shower in the corner going by the running water. On one of the couches was a girl with white hair wearing the standard Kuoh attire with a cat hair pin, on the other side of the room standing with clothes in hands for who was in the shower was a black haired teenager in another Kuoh academy uniform, this was apparently a club.

He decided not to say anything and just waited until the woman was done with her shower, and judging by the female outfit that the black haired teenager just laid down, she was almost done and so they could get started soon, "your clothes are laid out when you're ready miss president."

"Thank you Akeno," the woman thanked her servant of some sort, or friend doing a favor, regardless, she was through with the shower now so she cut the water off and began to put her clothes on, but the other woman thought that she'd get to know him until she was done.

"Who is that, I didn't see you there," Akeno said as she came over and watched as he eyed her with narrowed eyes, "It's okay, I won't bite, you're the new guy huh, it's nice to meet you," she said with a bow, "I'm Akeno Himejima, the vice president of the Occult Research Club."

He didn't say anything and chose to ignore her and bow his head a close his eyes, waiting for the woman to get finished with putting on her clothes, which she was, "sorry to keep you waiting, I like to shower a bit to get the smell of the normal school off of me," she said as she came out.

"I don't care, what are you, what is this place, and why did you do this," he said motioning to the illusionary form of Issei Hyoudou, he hated this form, he much preferred it when he looked like he always does, helps to drive away people and makes it easier for him to be alone, "to me."

"Well, since you asked so nicely," she said oh so sarcastically since he was being snarky and rude, she stood in front of her desk, leaning on it in an almost mirror notion to him, "I'll be quite frank with you, my name is Rias Gremory, and I'm a devil," to emphasize this, she spread her wings. But to her shock, he didn't really seem all that surprised, but maybe this would, "and now you're one as well," and on cue his wings spread out form him, the most she got out of him was a glance back to them, "I'm surprised, most are more shocked when I tell them something like that."

"I'm not most," was his reply to that as he dispelled the wings, 'guess I'm the first devil org hybrid, interesting,' he thought to himself, "I'm guessing this is your base of operations and this Occult Research business is a front for your devil activities then, not a bad plan, just don't care."

"Well, it seems that the only thing you do care about is knowing why you're like that," Rias guessed, he just inclined his head to tell her to proceed, "normal humans know nothing of the supernatural, to them we are just fictional characters, so imagine what'll happen if a werewolf runs loose."

He stared blankly at her for a moment before his org energy burst forth and dispelled the illusion, they felt a crushing weight, his calm voice held fury in it, "my name is Zen-Aku, the duke org, the most powerful org in all existence, I am not some savage mutt looking for his next meal."

Rias and her club could only stare in shock as his true form was unleashed, he stood there staring at them with narrowed eyes, eyes that tore into their souls, the others couldn't move, but she had to get down to business, no matter how much she wanted to flee, "what do you mean 'duke org'?"

Zen-Aku let up on the pressure and sighed, "orgs are, in a way, the first creatures that walked the earth, several millennia ago we were born from the pollution humans had already brought about, we usually thrive on such things as pollution and destruction, only a few of us have moved past it. I'm one of those few, a select few who have become so powerful that we've evolved into orgs that have only one horn, where as other orgs have two or more to signify their place amongst the species, duke orgs are the same as nobility to other orgs, and I'm one of those few to be a duke."

"Wait, I've never heard of such a thing as an org before, and I've never heard of anything close to what you're saying," Rias interjected with narrowed eyes, it could be possible he was lying, but if he wasn't, that would put him at her father's level in terms of rank, in his group at least.

"The last thing I remember before the boy put on my mask was flashes of light and then I woke up just a half of a millisecond before I was stabbed by 'Yuma', therefore I'm assuming, since the flashes never happened before, I'm in an alternate reality," he calmly countered back.

Rias put a hand to her chin in a thinking pose, "yes, that does make sense," she muttered before blinking, "oh, forgot to tell you, Yuma was actually what is known as a fallen angel," she revealed in hoping that would get some kind of reaction from him but the man was like an iron brick.

"That makes things a little more difficult, but killing her shouldn't really be a problem with me," Zen-Aku walked over to the window and stared out into the night sky, devils, fallen angels, more than likely angels too, none of this bodes well for him if he didn't grow in power.

"I never gave you permission to go killing members of the other faction," Rias commented with narrowed eyes, she was still the king and needed to assert her dominance over this duke org, "I told you that so you knew that there was no chance of killing her without starting another war."

He shot her a glare from over his shoulder that made her skin crawl, he turned and slowly walked over to where she was before standing directly in front of her, still glaring, "it seems you're under the impression that I'll willingly be joining in your club or become a subjugated devil servant."

"That's exactly what you'll be doing," she was currently failing to maintain her composure, this guy was so intimidating, "that was the price for me healing you in that summoning request, and the only way to heal you fast enough to save your life, turn you into a devil servant to myself."

"I just requested a healing, never said I'd sell my soul to the devil, or a devil, nor will I willingly be a subjugated servant to someone ever again," Zen-Aku growled before turning on his heal and began to leave, he was almost to the door when Kiba was in front of him with a sword in hand.

"If you do leave you will be labeled as a stray and forever be hunted down," Rias said with a false show of bravery, she wasn't sure any of them could take him, together or separate, "and it could be that you'll only be my servant for a short amount of time," now that peaked his interest. He turned his head slightly to glance over his shoulder at her, "we devils can grow in power and prestige the more contracts we fulfill, the more we fulfill the permanent pacts we make, and the more wealth those pact bring on, the more you grow in status as a devil."

"The more you grow in status as a devil, the more you move up in rankings, and the more you move up the quicker you get promoted to king of your own peerage and can then do whatever you want so long as it doesn't violate the laws set forth by the devil king," Akeno offered quickly.

"As of now in the devil community, you are regarded as low class and will remain that way until you grow in pacts, in the org community you were a duke, here you are low class," Rias's statement earned her a growl, "but maybe I can appeal to the devil king to transfer the status."

"Rias's brother is the devil king, Sirzechs Lucifer, so there is more of a chance that since he's her brother, your request to remain a duke can transfer over to the devil side, not just remain on the org side," Akeno helpfully put in, this could be a good chance to get him to remain and help them.

"There is also the chance that she'll be denied because of your own devil class system, right," Zen-Aku guessed and earned grimaces from everyone, so he was right, the devil class system had its own flaws, noticeable flaws that they don't like to talk about, what weak creatures they seem. "So there are a couple of ways to advance: work your butt off the slow way and gain enough pacts and power to advance up, or I could make an appeal to this devil king and see if my duke status would transfer over to the devils where I can get my own band of servants or travel alone."

"Those aren't the only ways, just two," Rias said and made sure he listened to this part, "there is also the rating games, two peerages do battle against each other and the winner gets a reward, if that one winning peerage continues to win, the members continue to grow as well. Eventually you become so renowned in the rating game that they have no choice but to promote you based on your deeds in them alone," then she turned a little down at that, "unfortunately the only options available to us is the first two, at the moment I'm not qualified to participate in them."

Zen-Aku thought on what she was saying for a moment, if the devil community was strong enough, they could eventually ware him down or send something like a super devil after him, he didn't need that, so becoming a stray was out of the question, at least for now anyways. The other two methods could take that much longer to, these devils sound like a race that relies heavily on red tape and bureaucracy, with that in mind, "I'll be a part of your peerage," they all cheered, "but as long as this duke transfer is in, if it gets thrown out, I'm gone too."

They all turned a little downcast at that, "fine, will you at least also go make some pacts as well," Rias asked and got an incline of his head to look at him, "oh, I guess I could cast another illusion on you," he growled at that, "what, how else are you going to go to school to keep your cover."

"I'm several millennia old, I'm older than you and possibly even your devil king, and I know more than that little pervert ever knew, and judging from how much I saw when that so called teacher was teaching, I know more than him as well, so I will not be going back to school," Zen-Aku stated.

"What exactly are we going to tell everyone happened to Issei, they saw you coming here while looking like him didn't they, so we can't just let everyone see that and make the assumption that we did something with him, plus how are you going to make pacts while like that," she countered.

"Easy," he stated before his form was briefly distorted and in it's place was Issei, only this time he was in all black clothing, black shoes, jeans, and muscle shirt, but he also looked older, like he was in his twenties, only he had amber eyes instead of his usual brown, but then the org was back. "I can't use that form for but a few hours at the most, enough time to pull off as many contracts as I can and then I revert back," he explained and they were shocked, he smirked a bit at their looks, "however I'm only able to do this because when you revived me, you didn't revive the boy."

"That's right, I never told you about how you were revived," Rias summoned her chess set and it materialized in front of them, "this is the evil pieces, chess pieces that, when implanted, can revive someone into a devil, it saved your life but also turned you into a devil at the same time."

"Yet, why wasn't Issei Hyoudou revived as well," Akeno questioned and looked to the org after, "shouldn't the evil pieces revived him as well since I assume you're life force is connected with his," she guessed the nature of the mask, and what she said was close, but not close enough.

"Somewhat, under normal circumstances, when someone puts on my mask, I take over their body and their life force I hold separately since I already have my own life force, but when Yuma stabbed me, I had to also use the boy's life force first to ensure that I survived past the boy. In short, the boy died after I was stabbed by the third spear, when Yuma left and you came," he motioned to Rias, "I was close to death myself, and so I believe that I'm now the permanent host to the vessel that was once known as Issei Hyoudou, so I can change to fit that form."

"That might be the case, but that would also mean that the sacred gear, the reason why Yuma was targeting him in the first place, is also now yours and that also means we have to figure out what it is," Rias stated to him and was about to tell him something else when he put up his right hand.

This action silenced her and then he focused himself, he looked deep within and pulled out the first form of the sacred gear, on his left hand appeared a red gauntlet, the first layer was a standard gauntlet, the second layer added on to the first one with a smaller design of the first. Where the wrist would be was a green gem that glowed a bit, where the back of his hand was another green gem, not as big as the other one, on the sides of the gear was two dark yellow sparks that stretched the length of the gauntlet, "I assume this is it, not really my type of thing."

He sent it back to within him as Rias spoke up, "after we do some research on it, we can then find out what it actually can do," she stepped away from her desk and turned even more serious, "now to serious matters, one that I'm afraid of the answer to, where do you plan on staying now."

"When I was back in my world, I usually just found abandoned shacks, caves, a few abandoned buildings, and one time just in the forest, so I guess I'll do the same here," Zen-Aku said absentmindedly, and that was the answer that Rias was afraid he'll answer with.

"I will not have my servant stay in the street, and since nobody can actually know of your existence, does anybody want to put him up for the night," she sounded almost pleading at that, nobody raised their hands, "then you will stay with me for the time being, and during the day?"

"I'll figure something out, I'm sure a few contracts could need for me to tail a target in the shadows, a few others could need a few different things as well, I'm good with getting my hands dirty, so it's fine to give me contracts that fit that description," he mentioned to her seriously.

"That might be able to work, we've had to throw out some requests for such things in the past, we never had anyone that wanted to do that kind of work, but with you here we might be pulling in a bigger haul than ever before," Akeno mentioned from her memory of the contracts.

"Very well, Akeno, please notify my brother of the change of personnel and that we're now active for that kind of work thanks to Zen-Aku, Kiba, pull up all contracts and have them ready for tomorrow, Koneko, notify Sona that Issei will no longer be in school or home ever again." Rias turned to the duke org, "I guess we'll be going back to my house so I can show you where you'll be staying for the next few days, and I don't want to have to tell you about picking up after yourself if you shed while in my house," she added with a glare towards him.

He was unaffected by such a thing so he just stood near the middle of the room and waited, the others moved to get to their homes or do their assigned jobs that couldn't be put in for tomorrow, Rias moved to stand beside him before summoning a magic circle and teleporting them home.

* * *

Rias's house

They appeared in a lavish room with a mostly colorful atmosphere, the couches were mainly a dark base design but had a bright cushion for sitting, same with the chairs, the path to the kitchen wasn't lit up, but his eyes could see it was also meant to be bright in there as well. Same with the place of the stares, in fact, the entire house seemed to be made for a bright colors loving person, quite the contrast to what the clubroom looked like, for a moment he didn't like that, but decided not to comment about what he didn't like with her, it didn't matter to her.

"There are some blankets in that closet," Rias brought him out of his observations of the house, pointing him to a closet in the living room, possibly so guests could have easy access to blankets and such, "help yourself, I'm going to shower," he just inclined his head, "and no peaking."

He paused in his movement and you could actually see the vein in the back of his neck, "I'll tell you this one time, I'm no longer that pervert that would peak the first chance he got, don't confuse that again," she stared at him wide eyes before he continued to move for the blankets.

She ran upstairs to begin her shower before bed, it seems that he was a bit too sensitive about Issei's past label as a pervert, but he still didn't have to be so mean about it, Rias wondered what had happened in his past to make him like that, so mean and rude to everyone. She had gotten in the shower and turned it on as she continued to think, 'it could be that he was betrayed by those close to him, that seems like something that might have happened to him,' she felt the warm water cascade down her form when a thought came to her. 'Maybe he wasn't betrayed, but rejected, perhaps by a woman, or maybe a previous host, if he was rejected by a woman, was it a human woman or an org woman, I wouldn't even know what one might look like or what he is in to, for him she could be beautiful but to us a hideous monster. Being rejected by a previous host though, I can understand why he was rejected from a looks standpoint, who'd want to be a wolf monster forever, despite the power advantage, but to be so close to someone that you share a body, I'd never understand how that rejection feels to him.'

She was done with the shower at the end of her mini monologue so she turned off the water and stepped out of it, grabbing a towel to dry off with and then headed for her room, she didn't bother taking clothes with her since she slept in the nude anyway, just travel there with a towel on. By now the duke org must be asleep so she was sure to be as quiet as possible when she grabbed her body pillow out from under her bed, how she got the habit of having to sleep in the nude and cuddling something she'll never understand, but oh well, at least she's coping with it. She started to drift off to sleep as she continued to think, 'to be honest though, his duke org form might just be cuddly with all that fur, it's got to be warm in the winter, nice and safe feeling in the summer, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to be liked by someone you could cuddle with.'

Zen-Aku had a very different experience though, after Rias ran upstairs, he went to the closet and got out some blankets while in deep thought, 'why do I have to stay here with another person,' the blankets were just plane white sheets since he didn't need heavy fabric since he had fur. 'I know what she said but I can't help but feel like it's a bit of a useless sentiment, I was fine being on my own in the other world, so why am I humoring these people,' he spread the blanket out before moving to remove his dark wolf armor before he realized something. 'I guess I can use them to gain some influence, a reputation unlike any I'd had before, then go back into hiding and become secluded again, that's the only thing that I can live like, a secluded soul that's bound into loneliness, that's all someone like me deserves.'

He got fully undressed except for in his pants and got under the covers of the couch, 'I guess it is possible that in that loneliness I could have some comfort for a change, nobody ever said that I must always be uncomfortable in my seclusion from the rest of the world, just tried to kill me. Though, to be fair, I do understand where they're coming from when asked to share a body with a duke org that was powerful enough to kill the master of the race, yet it still hurts to think about how Merrick callously threw away my soul, maybe when I'm back in seclusion it won't hurt as bad. Though that still depends on what will happen in the future, if I'm able to retain my duke status than I'll be set up with pieces automatically, which I can choose to use or not, that would also mean they'll give me a small fortune, which I'll use to remain secluded for as long as possible. If I have to work at it however, I'm afraid what might happen if I'm forced to interact with these devils too much, they might grow on me and make me desire companionship, or they might grow to hate me and reject me,' he yawned as his eyes became heavy, 'in either case, I need rest for tomorrow.'

* * *

A/N: As always with my stories, this will not be a harem story with Zen-Aku, this will however be a story that I may or may not have a love interest at all with him, I've yet to decide so you are welcome to give your opinions in the review as you wish, I'll take them all into consideration, I only ask that you give reason(s) as to why you chose who you choose. Not M/M, not M/multiple, and I don't know why I feel the need to include this, not a M/Milf (except Venelana Gremory, I'll allow that).


	2. Some Odd Jobs

Demon Duke Org

Chapter 2

Some Odd Jobs

Zen-Aku awoke to feel a pressure on his chest, it was not a familiar feeling, and his blanket was covering him and the strange weight, he had his hands under his head and on the arm of the couch and the weight seemed to be sprung out on top of him, with its legs intertwined with his. He was almost certain of the answer to the question as to what was on him, but he decided to open his eyes and see, he saw a head of red hair first, long red hair, so it was obvious that he was right, Rias, for some reason snuck into his bead and decided to sleep snuggled next to him. Why he was not about to even attempt to understand what logic went through her head when she thought it was a good idea to get in bed with him, but it was not okay, he rose up and not caring that he woke her up, or that she was groggy, he glared at her harshly as she rubbed her eyes.

"Is there a reason you are in my bed snuggled up next to me," Zen-Aku then looked down to see she wasn't wearing anything either, "correction, snuggled up to me naked, and keep in mind that it better be a damn good reason," his voice held no joy in it, he wasn't in the mood for her jokes.

"Um… I can't really sleep at all unless I'm naked and cuddling something," Rias strained to get out, he was being really mean with her just for cuddling with him, he growled a bit at her reason, "I don't know how I got here either, I was in bed and then I woke up to you glaring at me."

Zen-Aku stopped glaring and stood up from his sitting position, throwing off the rest of the blanket as a result, he stood tall before popping his neck a bit and stretching his muscles a bit before he spoke, "never do that again, do what you have to but never cuddle next to me again." He collected all the pieces of his armor and went over to the kitchen and then going to the sink before he proceeded to wash his gear, he was on his breast plate before he spoke again and not bothering to look up, "I'll use your shower after I finish here, you should get ready for school."

Rias was amazed at how well he just changed from threatening to telling her to get ready for school like an older brother figure, what they hell was with this guy, "how can you go from threatening me to acting calmly and telling me to get ready for school, it's very strange."

"It's called controlling your emotions, if I'm going to be living here for a few days, I figured I'll have to do similar things in the future, so I'll start now and since I'm doing these 'pacts', I might even give you and your club a few lessons, might even teach you how to fight," Zen-Aku stated.

"We know how to fight," Rias informed him and he just glanced over his left shoulder at her and she broke, "okay, we know how to hold our own and can take out a stray devil, but as long as it's not an s ranked stray or higher, we're more of a business oriented team than a fighting one."

"That's not really good, I remember you mentioning a war, but no fighting other than small skirmishes, so a ceasefire is in effect, that means that there is only one step away from a war on both sides, you must always be ready, and always improve," he said as he moved to his bracers.

Rias sighed, leave it to the guy several millennia old to fill in the holes of what she said, "fine, we'll set up time to practice later on," she turned to get ready, not even realizing that she was naked the entire time, "and for the record I still have no idea why I cuddled with you."

She left him to clean his armor and he let out a growl, that girl has no modesty whatsoever, he's going to have to do something about his living arrangements, she won't let him sleep like he used to, he can't go out into the open since the world knows nothing of monsters like him. He refuses to sleep in the same house as someone who sleeps naked as long as they continue to cuddle up next to him, this was the first time it happened, and he's going to make sure it is the last time as well, because despite everything else, he was not a pedophile. His body was now just his, the boy was of age to take her and not worry about that, but he was not, he was too old for her, too old for many of the people that he knew had secretly liked the boy, now he was dead and a duke org too old for them was in his place, just left him an excuse to be left alone.

* * *

Hour later

Rias was casually walking to school, despite what had happened this morning, she was smiling because she knew for a fact that this could be good for her and her peerage, they would be getting training in combat from a person that was sure to give them much needed experience. Sure they are able to take on some strays, but to be able to get training from someone who claims to be several millennia old means that they could eventually take on some powerful foes, perhaps even win against Riser in a rating game, maybe someone more powerful. Perhaps she was just dreaming about what she wanted her peerage to become, but can you actually blame her, to think that someone so old could give her and her servants so much training and help in battle experience, she was absolutely giddy with excitement.

Unfortunately for her, she smiled at the wrong time because she was now at school and some unexpected people were walking towards her, and it was only now that she noticed and she frowned, she would have been fine if it were someone else, but not who she saw coming her way. What she saw was Matsuda and Motohama, two of Issei's friends approaching her, they'd never been that bold before, but who she saw with them was what surprised her more, Murayama and Katase were also with the perverted duo approaching her, what surprised her more is what followed.

The one known as Matsuda was about to speak, before Katase put a hand on his shoulder and he backed down, "miss Rias, yesterday you asked Kiba to fetch Issei for you, did you not," Rias kept a blank face as she nodded, "we were wondering if you knew where he had went after that."

To her credit, Rias never once gave anything on her face away as she made an inquiry of her own, "forgive my rudeness, but why does it exactly matter to you where he is, don't you usually beat him for spying on you and the rest of the kendo club girls anyways?"

Katase hung her head down in shame while Murayama spoke up, "this would usually never be spoken out loud, but this is an abnormal circumstance, through his peeping we've learned a few things about him, like how actually kind hearted and brave he is, as well as dangerously loyal."

Rias raised an eyebrow prompting Katase to pick up where she left off, "most of the times that we've caught him 'peeping' was actually only Matsuda and Motohama while he gets hung out to dry, he could have told us at any time that it wasn't him and who it was, but he took the beating."

"Whenever we were caught, he would always have an escape route, we could easily see that, we're not nearly as dumb as what other people think, but despite him always able to escape, he stays, stays and takes some of the beating off of us," Motohama said as tears fell from his eyes.

"Then yesterday, our boy was so cold to us, ignored all of his normal stuff and just set there with a blank look, didn't even look at us or come with us to peek, then this morning we got a call from his folks, said he didn't come home and he was acting the same way there," Matsuda informed.

"We… we know you didn't do anything miss Rias, and we won't pry into any of your personal business, but please tell us where our Issei is, or any information that you might have about where he might go," Katase was starting to cry as well, and that is when it hit Rias hard.

Despite everything Issei had against him, he still had family and friends that were sad that he'd be gone, sad that the boy the knew would never come home again, and worst of all, she couldn't bear the thought of telling them that fact, or that he was now dead and his body is possessed. So with a sigh she told them part of the truth and then lied through her teeth, "I'm sorry, but I just asked him to the club to talk with him about possibly joining, he turned us down, said some hurtful things and just left, I don't know where he went to after that."

The four of them looked dejected after hearing that, but the bell rang and they had to turn away and hang their heads in disappointment at failing to find information about their friend, or whatever you want to call that relationship, but they left looking quite depressed about the result. Rias couldn't blame them, she herself felt depressed about it as well, she forgot that though Zen-Aku is better than Issei in every way, the boy still had family and friends, she had put that thought out of her head just to focus on the positives, but she can't exactly deny them outright. She made up her mind, she'd go to class and tonight after school she would talk with the duke org and find out if there was a chance, no matter how small that he might be willing to go back to an Issei form, just knowing that he was back would be better than thinking he was dead. They could be thinking that he'd had enough of being used as cannon fodder and ran away from home thinking nobody loved him, they could have thought that he was dead in a gutter somewhere with no form of identification and no way to notify them of his death, what a thought.

Rias entered the school as she thought what she thought they could be thinking about, and began walking automatically up the steps, "you seem very depressed about something," a calm voice brought her out of her reverie as she reached the top, "what's got you so down Rias?"

The owner was Sona Sitri, going by Sona Shitori for a human alias, she was the student council president and leaning against a stone pillar and eyeing Rias warily, Rias put on a polite smile as she regarded her oldest friend, "I'm fine Sona, just thinking over some recent changes."

Sona clearly didn't believe her and chose to change that topic a little bit, "I can no longer feel Issei Hyoudou's presence, and from what Koneko Toujou told me I never will again," she asked and saw her tense up a little bit, "I saw that, what actually happened to the boy Rias?"

Rias sighed, "he was killed at the end of his date with the fallen angel, the sad thing is that during the date the fallen angel tricked him into putting on a cursed mask housing a powerful warrior, the warrior took him over and used him to increase his chances of living until I could save him."

"So I take it that he also refuses to play the part of the boy and has declared that the boy is, by all rights, dead and his friends have asked you, wondering about where it is he must have gone," Sona accurately guessed, all Rias could do was nod, "take it easy then Rias, you don't need added stress."

* * *

The evening

"What do you mean you already knew," Rias demanded of what Zen-Aku just told her, he knew from the start that those two kendo girls loved Issei and his friends were contacted by the boy's parents to try and reach him, and yet he was just flat out ignoring all of that.

"Just what I said, I knew that both Katase and Murayama developed feelings for the pervert and that his friends and parents would miss him dearly, the boy knew it too, and everything they said was true, however I'm not him and it would disgrace his memory to pretend to be him. That's why I'm not pretending to be him, I do not impersonate the dead in any way, the boy is dead and I'm all that remains," Zen-Aku said from in front of the window, but then he sighed, "but if you insist on not letting this go, then I'll write a letter saying I ran away, happy?"

"Fine, but make sure you actually put some feeling into it and not hate and aggression either," that earned her a growl, "fine I'll drop it, for now though," she decided it was time for business, "I think it's time I explained some aspects of being a devil to you," Rias said as everyone else was gathered. "The way this works is we grant power to humans for a price we both agree on and then seal with a pact, it used to be that people would draw magic circles to summon us, but that became too complicated, nowadays we make house calls and personal deliveries to get the pacts. Ordinarily we'd have you sent out with some fliers and say that it was a great way to benefit to learn what all goes into this job, but you'd never agree to it, so we'll skip straight into starting pacts, you can start by taking a summon request from Koneko, she was double booked with two."

"Very well, it better not be anything I'll regret doing though," Zen-Aku stated, and stood up from the couch as Akeno formed a magic circle on the ground it was an intricate design to many, but simple for him to possibly replicate should he need to, and he just might in the future.

"We call that a transportation circle, hold out your left hand for me, if you would," Rias requested, the duke org complied and she made a motion with her finger and a crest appeared on it, "this is a seal, it serves as proof you're a member of the House of Gremory, make me proud."

Zen-Aku didn't say anything as he got in the circle, the magic felt strangely similar to his org energy so he made sure to put some of it in as well as turning to that human form he showed them, the circle glowed bright and in an instant he was in an unfamiliar room like a geeks, great.

"Who the fuck are you," he turned to see a dorky looking grown man sitting at his computer turned to him in shock, the duke org explained the situation to the man and he understood, "all right, if you're going to be the stand in you need to prove yourself, show me a cool devil trick."

Zen-Aku barely had to think of anything as he towered over the man and turned into his duke org form and the man shrieked and jumped back to the bed, he changed back and let it sink in, the man was breathing heavy, so he thought he should say something, "not the standard thing?"

"Hell no, Koneko usually does cosplay, ya know, save the princess," the man said and he could feel the deadpan without looking up, but he did anyway to prove it, "don't give me that look, I've looked everywhere for another cute young thing to sweep me off my feet on a weekly basis."

"Wait a minute, she rescues you," this was just getting to weird when the man nodded affirmatively, "since the pact was to 'save the princes', why don't I terrorize someone and you come in to save them instead, might help you get a date," that ranger experience helped, go figure.

"Hey, how come you just assume that I don't get dates," the deadpan that the guy got was replaced by a skeptical eyebrow, the man broke, "okay, you got me, but that idea wasn't half bad, in fact, I know the perfect target," the target was the man's longtime rival in his chosen career. This was also his greatest crush, he knew everything about her and knew she was walking home from working in a café that night, it was a simple plan with a simple ending, Zen-Aku in duke org form jumped out and attacked her, the man intervened and became her hero, man scores a date.

They met back up at his place, "now that the summons has been fulfilled, do you wish to make a pact now," the man vigorously nodded and they made the pact, he got quite a bit of money as payment for such a simple thing, the magical circle glowed as he remembered and he went to HQ.

"You were gone for quite some time, did you get the pact," Rias asked as he appeared via the circle, he looked back and just gave a slight nod before moving to from the middle of the room just as Koneko comes back as well, "good news, it seems that Zen-Aku made the pact today."

"Cool," Koneko said as she moved to the couch and took out a bag of chips before turning to him, "what did you do instead of the usual," he looked back and actually smirked behind his mask, they actually did the usual, just in a different way.

"Actually, we did the usual," he said and she just stared at him with a raised eyebrow as if he was crazy, "we did it in a different way and made him the hero instead, he even got a date out of it," she quickly caught on and actually smiled, at least that way he would be out of their hair.

"I'm not even going to ask what you mean by that, but you can go home for now, that was enough of a test run for today, next time we'll have something that more fits your… preferences," Rias stated, a little pause while trying to find the right word, but he got the message.

The duke org shrugged before turning around and walking over to the window and jumping out and disappearing in a shimmer of shadows, Koneko turned to Rias when he was gone and said, "that has to be the coolest power I've ever seen," her usual tone had a hint of being impressed.

Rias had to agree, that was one impressive power, to blend in with shadows and use them like it was nothing was quite the power, it could work in many different ways, he wasn't a duke org for nothing, a duke org like a wolf, "Koneko, shouldn't you hate him due to your… natures."

Koneko looked over to her king and gave her usual look, her king was trying to make a good hearted joke, or was genuinely curious, "I never said I didn't, but unless he does something I don't like, I have no reason to hate him, that rumor is a learned behavior more than anything."

* * *

The next evening

This wasn't like the previous night, this night they were supposed to go to some place to kill a stray, a monster who was supposed have betrayed their master and fled, Rias was a little eager to show Zen-Aku what he'd have to work with when it came to training them when he started. She even started to train herself in something already though, she made sure that she stayed in her own bed if she decided to cuddle the duke org in his sleep, how did she do this, she chained herself to the bed and had him unchain her when it was time for her to go to school. It was during school that they got the alert from the 'archduke', apparently that is where they get their orders from in regards to where a stray is if it is low level or high enough threat to need to be taken out, it was after school was over that they decided to head out though.

"Stray devils start out as devil servants," Kiba started to inform as they teleported to where the stray devil was located, it was a mansion type of place that the stray had been hiding in to lead strangers in so that it can devour them, not a bad plan if you're looking for a meal. "Once in a while, a servant rebels and kills their master to gain freedom, then they become strays, or do what you almost did and leave without permission and go off on their own, they're all hunted down to be executed once that happens."

"According to the reports, this stray has been tricking people into that abandoned house and eating them," Akeno informed them as they walked up the steps to the mansion about to enter it, "tonight's job isn't too hard, just find the beast and kill it."

"These monsters are pure evil, they don't care about anything but their own selfish desires, and that always ends in ugliness," Kiba informed as they walked through the door and into the poorly lit room, good thing for them that they could see in the dark just as well as in the day.

"Zen-Aku, are you familiar with the game of chess," Rias asked as they walked and looked around, for any sign of the stray, she looked back and saw that the wolf duke org nodded his head, he doesn't say much but what he does say they all stop talking to listen to his words. "As the master, I'm the king, my empress is the queen, my cavalier the knight, my tank the rook, my clergymen the bishop, and my foot soldier the pawn, devils with titles and nobility grant the characteristics of these pieces to each one of their servants, those are the evil pieces. I want you to watch and learn, pay close attention to the others as they do battle here tonight so you know what you're working with when it comes time to train us, you might even learn something," Rias instructed him, and he might just pay attention to her.

"It's here," Koneko stated in monotone, most got on guard or battle-ready positions, Zen-Aku just stood there with his arms crossed over his chest and waited until it showed itself to see what 'ugliness' that he'd see what they were talking about, it couldn't be that bad.

"Now what could that foul, fickle smell be, mmmm, and something smells quite delicious as well, I wonder if it tastes sweet or bitter," came a woman's voice and out from behind a pillar came a raven haired naked woman, top half though the bottom half was obviously something else.

"Viser you wretch, you betrayed your master and ran away to fulfill the lustful wants and desires that have consumed you, your sins are worthy of a thousand hells, in the name of the great Marquis of Gremory, be gone, or meet your death," Rias exclaimed like it was rehearsed.

"Oh, just give it a rest you little slut, you always have had it in for me, you're just jealous because your breasts will never be as luscious as these," Viser exclaimed while groping herself, she was clearly insane, but something seemed off in the back of the duke org's head, but couldn't place it.

"This is your final warning, go back to your master now," she warned in a commanding tone, it didn't really seem to have an effect since she was clearly too deranged to listen to anything Rias had to say, she just kept on fondling her breasts the entire time.

"Let me show you why I won't be doing that," Viser insanely said as she revealed her entire form, her lower half had large arms and hands, at what he assumed was her crotch was a vertical mouth with sharp teeth, as well as what seemed to be hooves for feet, and a snake for a tail.

"See what I mean, when I said it ends in ugliness, I wasn't joking," Kiba said as the stray continued to fondle her own breasts and got off on it, her nipples seemed to grow and stiffen before red magic circles appeared and began spinning rapidly, until lasers shot form them.

The others moved to dodged the best they could, Zen-Aku just weaved out of the way as he let them pass over him "please be careful," Rias advised before looking back over to where Kiba was, "Kiba," she called and with a war cry, the knight moved at a halfway decent speed.

"No, he didn't vanish if that was what you thought," it wasn't, "he's just moving fast, in this game, he is my knight, his main attribute is his speed, and Kiba's ultimate attack weapon is his sword," Rias informed before Kiba cut the arms off Viser and let them fall to the ground.

Viser screamed in pain as Koneko stepped forward, she moved to devour the little girl with its lower mouth, she just stood there and let it swallow her, but it was clear that since she let it happen that she meant for it to, before long Koneko forced open the mouth that trapped her. "In the game, Koneko is my rook, her attribute is simple, she has an unparalleled strength, that won't even put a dent in her," Rias informed as Koneko swung to her left and delivered a teeth shattering punch to the already weakened monster, it sent her crashing through a pillar. "Akeno," Rias called out to her queen for her to begin the final part of it, that is when things started to click for Zen-Aku, why he hated seeing what they were doing to this creature, he was about to act when Akeno began walking while talking.

"Oh, is it my turn, how exciting, I so love this game," one detached arm was about to get Rias, but Zen-Aku silently took out his crescent blade and took it out, "I've got news for you, you're not the only one that likes to play rough around here, so let's you and I have some fun," Akeno said.

"Akeno is my queen, her attribute is a perfect combo of all the other pieces, she's simply unbeatable," Rias informed as lightning sparked between Akeno's hands and Viser whimpered, Zen-Aku really wanted to act now, but just one more jolt to let the creature regain sanity.

"Tough girl, not ready to give up yet, goody, I get to play some more," Akeno said as she called forth the power of lightning from a yellow magic circle and strike the stray devil with a huge blast making her scream out in pain, but the tug on the duke org's mind was almost to its limits.

"Her power is a dark magical power, and that's not all," Rias said as if leading up to a big reveal to her queen, who looked her lips from pleasure, "she's really into S&M," Rias informed and that is where the duke org finally let it snap before Akeno kills the poor creature.

"Is this as good for you as it is for me," Akeno asked as she electrocuted the poor creature, but before she could anymore, Zen-Aku grabbed her arms as she was about to unleash another lightning blast, "awe, why are you interrupting my fun," a quick glare told her to shut up.

Rias was about to protest to what he seemed to be doing before he looked over his shoulders and told her to shut it with a glare, he walked up to the creature kneeling on the ground as it whimpered from the beating that it just took, "Please, just kill me and get it over with."

"No," Zen-Aku said softly as he kneeled on the ground to hold her up for a moment of comfort, "first you need to tell me why you have chosen to become like this, what was so important that you desired freedom and the hunting over simple servitude," he didn't say it like the others did.

"You think I wanted this," she choked out as her face became like it was when they first arrived, "I was always sick when I was a human, had to have constant blood bags to keep me alive, but then I had the chance to become a devil and I took it, my 'master', just wanted me for sex. I'm not that vein, but I prided myself on being quite the looker when I didn't have tubes and needles in me, so he wanted me and he took me without my consent every night, I begged him no and he took me anyways, he just wanted me for sex and in exchange I got healthy and some power."

"So in the end you ran away from him, even knowing of what would become of that beauty of yours you chose that instead of staying with your master any longer and let him have his way with you, I understand where you're coming from," Zen-Aku said gently and softly.

"How would you know," by now the tears would never stop, "I bet behind that mask you're more beautiful than I could ever be now, even if I did survive, what kind of person would want me, a monster now, I'm forever hideous and all because I didn't want to be sick anymore."

"You're wrong on many things, you are not hideous, not in my eyes," Viser slowly looked up from his words to see him, "and this is not a mask, not now, this is my face, I am a monster fully and I do not regret it, you only did what you could to stop an illness, your fate is not your fault but his."

Viser wept in his arms as she clung to this man who was a monster and understood her pain like those others did not, "please, kill me, just kill me so I don't have to have those memories, please," and the duke org complied, but he made sure that she had her focus elsewhere. He captured her lips in the hard lips of his own mask, and she loved it, not the kiss itself, which was actually very good, but what he was doing, distracting her so she did not feel the knife that found her heart, she could only feel that he made sure her last memory was a good one.

Zen-Aku stood from his kneeling position to take in what he had done, he was being honest with himself, she was still beautiful in his eyes, deformities or no, so he gave her the last wish she asked for, but he could not find it in him to not regret killing her, not like that. He turned and walked back to the others who looked down at what they had witnessed, "you saw another side to the strays that you are sent to kill, that will be your first lesson, not every stray deserves death, you should not follow orders like drones, question if it doesn't make sense."

The others nodded as they began to file out, they had a lot to think about, especially Rias, she was taught that master order servants and servants obey, usually she wouldn't think twice about that, but now, she's seen the other side, those that didn't wish to be servants, how they felt. Now she had doubts, did the others feel like that at times, she knows that Zen-Aku does, he's like a lone-wolf that can't be tied down by a pack, but the others, how did they all feel whenever she orders them, how often do they wish to tell her no, or betray her for their own freedom.

"Don't worry Rias," Akeno said from beside her, and as if reading her mind she added, "we don't ever think of betraying you, we chose this and knew what it would entail, so you don't have to worry about us, we'll never betray you as long as we live," she hugged the girl who hugged back.

* * *

Next night

The next night we find Zen-Aku going through a teleportation circle to another client, this client was another of Koneko's double bookings, after so long of one way it was difficult to get word out that you're free for dirty work, at least that was according to Rias anyways, and it made sense. However the requests they were getting was already starting to turn towards that way, so it shouldn't be too long before he's sent on one, with that being said, this was already starting to become an interesting one, what with the pile of body parts he's currently seeing.

"'Punish the wicked,' words to live by, yes," he heard a voice to the side and saw a young man with dark silver hair, "wise advice to heed from a holy man," the man than looked back and Zen-Aku saw that he had red eyes and his face twisted into a grin with his tongue sticking out. "Well, well," he stood from the couch he was sitting on, "you just walked into the wrong house my friend, Freed Sellzen here, at your service," he bowed a bit, then he started to dance with joy, "and you must be the scared little pussy whose devil ass this holy priest is gonna exorcise!" This Freed turned menacing eyes to the duke org, "I work for a certain devil-purging organization you may have heard of," this was one really bad situation, a body dead a mangled on the floor, a priest inside wanting to kill him, and possibly more outside.

"Then I take it you're the one who killed the man that was summoning a devil," Zen-Aku asked and the man nodded and was about to say something before the duke org continued, "you're just killing to kill, and you're just using devils to justify it, quite pathetic of you to be honest."

"Yeah, well I want to be free to kill any time I want, so why not choose devils, you're all already evil so why not kill you, as for him, summoning you was proof that he's done being human, so I had to chop him up into little bitty pieces," Freed said with a manic grin on his face at that. "Putting down devils and the lost souls that would cry out to them is my job now," he reached in and pulled out a sword hilt and a pistol, "and no one is better at it than me, first I'm gonna cut out your evil heart with my heavenly blade of light, then I'm gonna blow a hole in your demon face."

Freed jumped to attack Zen-Aku, but he was quicker and far more experienced, grabbing the swinging arm at the wrist and twisting it out of his grasp, Freed then brought up his gun to shoot, but the duke org was read with his flute dagger knocking the gun away by the trigger. Unsummoning his dagger he began the beating, punching Freed in the gut before delivering a right cross to the face, then a backhand, elbow to the collar bone, and then throwing away the priests arm to deliver a spinning roundhouse kick to knock the priest into the wall. Freed jumped back up almost immediately and went for his light sword, only for it to get kicked away, continuing with the swing of the kick though, Zen-Aku spun and kicked Freed into the wall again, this time with enough force to crack the wall and make his head bleed a bit.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH," they heard a shout of horror and turned to see a blonde girl in a nun outfit, from the look of her eyes and the way she shouted, it was clear that she wasn't used to the slaughter before her, not the beating that the priest was currently going through.

"What the hell," Freed voiced as he stood slumped against the wall, "Asia, what are you doing here, are you done creating the barrier already," then he got a look at her face and her horror, "right, a newbie, well then I guess it's time you learned this is what they job is, my dear. We dispose of those unfortunate people who have been bewitched by the evil devils," Asia then turned to see who the devil was and saw a man she never met before standing before the bleeding form of the priest she had been sent to aid on this mission.

"Oh, and what makes a devil evil, just a name that breeds more hate and those such as you who believe such drivel is what I can't stand," Zen-Aku grabbed Freed by the throat with his left hand, "for all you've killed in falsehood, I should kill you and be done with any further aggravation." He brought out his crescent blade and stabbed the priest through the chest with it, but he wasn't dead yet since he missed his heart and vital organs, "that was for every devil you killed for your own sick enjoyment," he ripped out the blade and let the blood gush out of the wound. He put the blade to the man's skull and watching as the priest's eyes zeroed in on the blade before stabbing it through the man, then ripping it out and swinging it so cleanly that the blood was cleaned off of the blade, and he turned to the horrified looking Asia before him.

"W-w-why did you do that," Asia's voice trembled as she was on the verge of crying at seeing such a thing, "he could have repented his sins and been forgiven, you didn't have to kill him," she said trembling still as she sunk to her knees and watched Zen-Aku come towards her.

He stopped just a couple feet away before kneeling to the ground at her level, "I did that for vengeance, for all those that he killed and would have killed, but I have an important thing to ask you," his eyes narrowed at the nun, "did you know of anything that he planned to do tonight?"

"O-of course not, he told me we were going to a sinner's house and I was to make a barrier, but I thought he was going to just talk to the man and preach on the word of God, I never knew what he was going to do," Asia spoke through tears, and the duke org could see that she spoke true.

"Then I have no reason to kill you since you were an innocent," Zen-Aku put away his crescent blade as a red seal appeared in the air and out came the rest of the peerage, they were ready to take on whoever it was that caused the emergency alert to go off, but they were too late.

"Oh my, it seems we're late to the party," Akeno said as Kiba came out, then Akeno and Koneko, then Rias came out after that, it seemed they all seemed to think he needed saving, "we thought you might need help when the alarm bells went off, how late are we?"

"You're about three full minutes late, I already killed the priest and the girl is innocent of this, let's go back, there is nothing for us here," the duke org suggested and everyone went back to the magic circle to leave the scene of the crime, "goodbye girl, hope we don't meet again."

With that they teleported out of there and back to the club room with their peerage member back with them, Rias went to her desk and leaned against it, "sorry about that, I didn't mean to send you into the arms of a stray priest like that, from now on we'll check the area before the jump."

"It's fine, I got to kill a stray priest and possibly save future contracts from a slaughter as well," Zen-Aku went to the window to stare out at the night sky, "by the way, when are you going to let me move out of your place, I'd prefer not to sleep with one eye open every time I sleep."

Rias frowned a bit at the memory of their first night under the same roof, Akeno giggled a bit imagining what might have went down, Koneko got some snacks to eat, and Kiba chuckled to himself, "not too much longer, I'd say in about two days a special place will be set up for you."

He stared back over his shoulder at her, two days weren't even going to fly by, but fine, he'd hate it and silently judge them on every action, but he'll have to put up with it, "fine, but be prepared, as soon as you give the green light to start some training, I'll beat you four times the two days."

Rias widened her eyes a bit as Zen-Aku left through the window, now she was quite terrified to let them be trained by him, for all they knew, he'd literally break their bodies for his own enjoyment, though at this point trying to guess what he derives joy from is just guess work at best.

* * *

Next day

Zen-Aku was a little upset, well, it was more like he was grouchy than upset, he was walking around town in his human form, normally he'd wait until tonight in that home of Rias's, however he was just informed that they don't work on weekends, so he had two whole days to himself. So of course he was grouchy, he had to spend two whole days doing nothing and waiting for work, or training, but you can only go so far training by yourself, you need someone else to spar with to improve, if you don't then your growth becomes stagnate, so he shouldn't train too much.

He was walking past a park when he saw someone he recognized from just the night before, Asia was on the swing by herself and just sitting there, it wasn't too big of a coincidence to believe that they'd cross paths out here, the town was quite small all things considered, so it would happen. However he decided to watch her from a distance, taking care to hide his presence in case she could sense it, hiding in the shadows and making sure that she wasn't just acting innocent and wasn't up to something truly troublesome that might happen to the rest of the peerage. She didn't go to too many places, when she was hungry she stopped at a local burger place and ate, it was comical seeing her fail to eat a cheeseburger without making a mess of herself, then she tried to do something fun like the arcade, she tried winning a stuffed animal but failed. She then began walking around until she came across a bench in front of a small pond and sat down and watched the pond, Zen-Aku stood behind one of the pillars that surrounded the pond and kept an eye on her when he got the feeling of something coming, something familiar.

"Don't you think it's time to stop running Asia," he knew that voice, that was belonged to 'Yuma', though he heard Asia shutter something like, 'lady Raynare,' so he figured that was her real name, it seemed there was conflict within the faction of fallen angels, he could use that.

Zen-Aku changed into his true form and walked out from behind the pillar and saw how Asia turned wide eyed at his appearance, Raynare seeing her look turned to see what she was staring at and backed up a bit, she dared not speak, not when she knew who this was. "What's wrong, I thought you'd have a bad reaction to your ex, but this seems a bit extreme," he taunted her and watched as she gained some fire from the rage that comment obviously brought, "we did have a bad breakup but that doesn't mean we can't be friends, right?"

"Ha, like I'd ever be friends with a devil such as yourself," she sneered and made ready a spear of light, "and I'm almost sad to say I ever dated that little boy Issei, and even more sad that he got even uglier with you taking him over," she held the spear with both her hands, ready to strike.

"I'll have you know that for my original kind, I was the most beautiful of them all," you could tell that he raised an eyebrow at her before walking calmly around the side of the pond, "Asia wasn't it," the girl jumped and nodded fearfully, "what power does Raynare obviously want from you?"

"I-I have the sacred gear known as Twilight Healing, it allows me to heal whatever kind of creature I choose, be it devil, fallen angel, or whatever you are," Asia said quickly, though she said the last part quietly while also not meaning it to be mean, she didn't know what he is.

Zen-Aku narrowed his eyes at Raynare and brought forth his dagger flute, the fallen backed up a bit and Asia cowered behind the bench, she didn't know if what she said hurt his feelings or not, "and what do you want out of this life little one, freedom, power, strength, what do you want?"

"I," she paused, trying how to say this without sounding like a child, this was already a scary creature before her, it would hurt her more if were to laugh at her dream like the other fallen, "I want to make life-long friends and be happy with them," she declared and waited for the laughter.

It never came though, instead out came a beautiful song, a song from that flute that appeared in his hands suddenly, the fallen didn't know what was going on, but she knew to be cautious, had to give the wolf monster credit though, he did know how to play a flute, the song was great. When the song was done he brought the flute dagger down and sent it away, "then join us devils instead," they both widened their eyes at his proclamation, "what, church didn't want you right, fallen angels only want you for your power, why not become a devil and try your luck?"

"Don't listen to him Asia," Raynare spoke up and almost regretted it with his glare, "we may want you for your power, but devils can't be trusted, the only thing they'll do is use you until your hope is so high then toss you aside like yesterday's garbage, you can't trust them, we serve God."

"Not true, has either of you heard of the Gremory clan," Raynare paled a bit and Asia looked confused, "they treat all their servants like family, I won't lie and say your power won't play a part, but I also won't lie and say the chances of you making friends is nothing, because it's high."

Asia thought about it while Raynare looked for any way to escape this situation with Asia, she could already feel his power from here, and there was no telling just what sacred gear that wolf beast got from Issei, if he even got one, but it was better to be safe than sorry. She thought about possibly distracting him with a huge wave of water, then bursting through the smoke and taking Asia, or perhaps sending a crap-ton of spears his way and force him to block them while she fled with the nun, or perhaps a combination of the two.

"Alright," Asia spoke up, "I'll go with you mister wolf creature, if I can't find friends with the church or the fallen angels, then I'll find them with the devils I'm sure," she said determined, though the look of a little girl looking so determined reminded him of that one group he faced.

"I can't let that happen, your sacred gear is far more rare and infinitely more valuable to our kind than you can imagine, we need it a lot more than devils do," Raynare took her spear and plunged it into the pond to create an explosion of water that was directed towards the duke org. Using that, she created two more spears and threw them through the water at him, before rushing over with her advantage of in the air and made to grab the stunned girl, only to pause with what she saw when over the confusion that was the water explosion and spear combo. The wolf beast she thought she had surprised was holding onto the spears of light like it was nothing and looking right at her, and in a flash turned the spears around and jabbed them upwards, impaling her wings with them and making the fallen angel fall just behind them.

"You shouldn't announce what you're planning with your eyes like that, it was obvious from how you were looking at the water and to your spear," Zen-Aku stated as he walked up behind the downed fallen angel with the spears still poking out of her wings before the disappeared. The duke org took out his crescent blade and stabbed her through the back with it, her blood splattered out from her chest and onto the pavement, "and this is how you make sure your target is dead," he ripped out his blade before swinging it and in one smooth motion took her head off. He put his crescent blade back where it came from and turned back to look at Asia who looked quite shaken, "she won't hurt you any more, or take your power," he turned to begin walking, "come on, time to introduce you to your new friends."

She snapped out of her shock to catch up with him as he turned into his human form, they began walking and that is when she thought of something, "how did you catch those spears of light, I thought devils couldn't touch them or they burn," her question was full of intrigue.

"Simple, when devils reincarnate someone into one of them, they do so to the being, however my armor is only pieces of my attire, you cannot turn that into devil armor, so I was able to grab it thanks to my gauntlets," his answer was exact and to the point, "and my name is Zen-Aku."

"Nice to meet you mister Zen-Aku, my name is Asia Argento, and I hope we can be friends," she introduced with a smile on her face, he just nodded and they began walking again, walking to the old school building, because despite not having to work today, Rias still had things to do there.

As he was walking through the woods leading the girl, he came across a little maid looking fallen angel, "who are you monster, and why's that nun with you," her demeanor screamed to be that of a child, and even more so with the way she was swinging her arms about and whatnot. Zen-Aku decided not to deal with her and shadowed behind her and snapped her neck, by grabbing the back of her neck and twisting, apparently she was a spy that was watching the club house, but now she was maggot food, they continued on their way until they reached the building.

Zen-Aku opened the door for her and together they walked up to the room where Rias was and motioned for her to wait until called, eh stepped inside quietly and walked over to Rias as she said, "what're you doing here, shouldn't you be at home doing whatever it is you do alone."

"Don't worry, I think I've found something very interesting, do you remember that nun girl that was at the massacre yesterday," she nodded with a skeptical eyebrow raised, "well it turns out that the nun, Asia Argento, has a sacred gear named Twilight Healing, able to heal anything. Today I was walking around town when I found her and it was there that she was attacked by the fallen angel that killed me, real name is Raynare, anyways, one thing led to another and turns out that she wishes to join us so that she could make friends, told her we were her best chance."

Rias leaned back at his information, he just recruited someone incredibly useful to them and even knows her underlining motive for everything, she just wants to make friends, and knows the best chance for that to happen was with her and her group, amazing, "and what of Raynare."

"Like I said, one thing led to another and in the end she was killed, and unlike her, I made sure to finish the job, even took care of that spy that I'm sure you must have sensed outside," at her nod he continued, "so are you going to make me a liar and turn her away, or accept her."

"Of course we're going to accept her," Rias exclaimed and Asia believed that was her cue to go in, because she did, "good, now what can you tell me about yourself that Zen-Aku here hasn't shared with us yet," she said with a smile, it was good to see that he was getting out.

"Not much of anything I'm afraid, I was part of the church for the longest time, but when they found out I could heal devils and used it, they cast me out and I was forced to seek shelter under the fallen angels, but they just wanted me for my power," Asia informed looking quite sad.

"Don't worry, Asia was it," Rias asked and Asia nodded, "unlike that bunch of rejects, we accept everyone, and we let everyone become a devil, even ex-nuns that were excommunicated from the church," she got up from her seat and walked around to stand in front of Asia. "We won't lie to you, your sacred gear did play a part of the decision process, but you're going to have to get over the fact that you have a sacred gear that is convenient, but under no circumstances will it play a part of how we see you, a member of the peerage of Rias Gremory."

Rias stuck out her hand and the girl gently took it as to accept the deal, "thank you miss Gremory, I promise to be a good devil and be usefully to you," she said with a smile and tears in her eyes, it was actually refreshing to possibly have a few friends and a family for a change.

"Now none of that, it's fine, you're here among friends now," Rias brought in the ex-nun for a hug, a hug that was rightly accepted and returned, this was going to be a wonderful moment in the future, but for now, "oh, by the way Zen-Aku," she said as she and Asia let go of one another. "I checked all the resources I know and after cross-referencing all of it I came across the identity of your sacred gear, it's called the red dragon and it automatically doubles its owner's power every ten seconds, allowing you to transcend both God and Satan at will. It's one of the thirteen varieties of Longinus, this is the strongest level of the Red Dragon Emperor, the Boosted Gear," Rias revealed and Zen-Aku brought out his gauntlet and examined it, but for some reason it had red claws with it now, and the yellow spikes pointed back instead of out. "The one downfall is that it requires a decent amount of time to start due to its immense power, so all in all I think we got quite the members, the Red Dragon Emperor and an ex-nun with Twilight Healing, added to the Empress of Annihilation and Queen of Thunder, I like those odds."

"I do as well," Zen-Aku stated as he turned to leave, the sun was starting to go down, so he's going to go for a moonlit walk, that is until a cough interrupted him, he turned back to see Rias grinning at him, he didn't like that grin, "I don't like it when you grin like that," he said plainly.

"To be honest, the house I have prepared for you will be ready tomorrow, so for tonight Asia will be staying with us, then tomorrow you both will move in to your new home," did he hear that right, BOTH, "the easiest way to set her up at school would be for a story between you two. Zen-Aku and his daughter Asia moved here for his job and Asia will be going to Kuoh Academy, the best school he could get her into, Asia will be loved and you will only have to come around the actual school for open house, plus you get to learn how to be a bit more sociable."

Zen-Aku growled a bit at having to do this, of course he couldn't just do something nice and go on with his life as if nothing happened, there had to be some kind of stipulation, "um," Asia spoke up, "do I get a say in this, it does involve me and all," yes, deny her, deny the request.

"Of course you get a say," what are you doing, you're supposed to be disappointed, "I just thought that since he was the one that brought you here, he should take some responsibility and help you as your senior, and his age and yours make the story believable, and convenient."

Asia hummed in thought as if thinking about it, no, don't think about it, "you do have a point, and he did protect me like I imagined a father would," she looked back with puppy-dog eyes, why would you do this, "I'd like to get to know the one who saved me as well, so please play my dad."

She was begging with puppy dog eyes, Rias was smirking but you could tell she was holding back a grin, and Zen-Aku showed no outer emotion, since he couldn't really do that anyways, and his eyes betrayed nothing, so with a sigh, "fine, but don't expect me to read any bedtime stories."

"She's not that young Zen-Aku," Rias commented through her trembling smirk, she was really trying not to grin, it took a few minutes to calm down so she could share some more news, "also, we finally have the word out through the airways that we're ready for your kind of work. Not sure how your new daughter," que a growl, "will feel about this but your dad is going to be doing some not so nice things to pay his way up in the world, but that is only him, you and the others will be doing more… honest work I guess we should say."

* * *

A/N: I have decided that there will be a paring, I have also decided that there will not be any underage or too young while not exactly being underage parings, your choices are the more mature people, Venelana (already have one vote for her), Tiamat (have one vote for a big sister role), Ophis (no votes for that yet), Gabriel (no votes for her yet), and Serafall (no votes for her yet). You have until Valentine's day before I finalize the results, post your choice in review, or PM me your choice.


	3. Job, Games, and Training

Demon Duke Org

Chapter 3

Job, Games, and Training

Zen-Aku woke up fine the next morning, he was on the couch as usual and on the love seat on the other side of the coffee table was Asia asleep, Rias was in the shower going by the noise of running water that he was hearing, he softly got out of his 'bed' and walked over to the sink. Taking each piece of armor and washing it clean, this was his routine the entire time he was here and would probably be so for the next house as well, when he heard rustling, he knew that Asia had woken up and made it to the kitchen, "good morning Zen-Aku, or should I call you father."

That was another thing, the girls in the club have all unanimously decided to start teasing him regarding that he is now her father essentially, "I think you should just call me Zen-Aku in private and father in public, I'm not, nor will I ever be, use to you calling me father, or dad, or papa."

"Alright, Zen-Aku," Asia looked a little downcast at that, but he does not do fatherhood, he doesn't do friends, and the only reason he's going along with this is that he doesn't want to have to be on the run, just live alone and peacefully away from everyone, just play along for now.

"Good, you both are up," Rias said as she came into the kitchen with only a towel covering her form, "after you both shower and get ready we'll move your stuff into your new home," she went to the fridge and got some milk, then a glass to pour it into, "and I took the liberty to shop too."

Zen-Aku looked up from his armor at that and turned to her, it was obvious what she did, "let me guess, you got me more clothes to wear than just my armor, didn't you," she smiled, confirming her actions, "fine, did you at least pick a good request for our debut into the 'human underworld'."

He said with quotes around 'human underworld', that was the only thing they could call it and not beat around the bush, "yes, the Bratva is in town today, they've requested assistance with a job that would have more than one casualty more than likely, they already set up a meeting point." She handed him a slip of paper with an address on it, the place was close to the edge of town, as expected, "the meeting is set for eight tonight, I don't know when you'll make it back so be safe and don't get into any funny business, don't need you getting hurt."

"I'll be fine, probably just be a small hit using me instead of their own guys to make sure that their casualties are at a minimum, or essentially non-existent, most I'll face are some guns and possibly one or two knife to sword specialists," Zen-Aku guessed as he finished with is armor.

"You seem to know a lot about what this 'human underworld' would entail for work, is there a reason for that," Asia asked innocently with a tilt of her head, of course the duke org kept the fact that it brought up some memories for him hidden and they had no idea about it.

"Devils are only seen as dark creatures but the fact that you don't deal in this type of work is proof that you're not, but my kind is quite different, no matter the breed or context, my kind are always made for the dark, we instinctively know more than you do concerning this subject," he said.

"Well that is quite interesting to know," Rias said as she finished off her milk, "by the way, I need you to know something," Zen-Aku raised an eyebrow at her, barely able to be seen through the mask, "because you're the Red Dragon Emperor I'm not sure if the status transfer will be granted. Let me give you the reason as why before you start growling," he was about to growl, but decided she should at least tell him why before he did, "the red dragon is one of the two heavenly dragons, they interrupted the great war and everyone had to unite to stop them and seal them. The sacred gear that you have hold's its soul, so it would be a huge advantage for us if you're a devil, more so if you're a devil servant under someone rather than on your own, but we also need to keep you happy so you don't turn on us, so it's a roll of the dice on your request results."

Now Zen-Aku growled, being this Red Dragon Emperor is sounding it'll be more of a hassle then needed, if only he didn't have to be a devil and could be just a duke org, only in his dreams, "fine, but I have yet to ask when the results will be in, I've yet to hear anything about its status."

Rias sighed, hoping to avoid this particular conversation, "in truth, your case would be determined by a committee of devil elders, a council of judges to judge if your kind are on par with a duke devil, and after that the final decision will be left up to the four satans, two I know personally."

"I know that one is your brother, this Sirzechs Lucifer, formerly Gremory, but what about the other one that you know, how do you think these two would decide," he asked in hope of getting some information, it wasn't every day that you learn of a possible satan to help your cause.

"She's… eccentric, she's the satan in charge of foreign affairs and does quite well at it considering she's also a huge sis-con like my brother who tries to come off cool, but Serafall doesn't let her rank go to her head, in fact she's a bit childish and cheerful, bringing smiles to everyone. She's actually the older sister of Sona Shitori, you might not have known this but her real name is Sona Sitri, the next head of the Sitri clan since Serafall is now the satan Leviathan," Rias informed and he nodded his head in acknowledgment and to show he was listening. "Serafall will more than likely view this as a good opportunity to keep the Boosted Gear in our hands so to keep you happy would vote yes, my brother on the other hand is far more unpredictable in his voting, he could say such a dangerous element needs to be watched or agree with Serafall."

"So either way you look at it I only have one almost vote for yes, and even that is an if because she's too unpredictable herself, right," Zen-Aku asked and got a regrettable nod in confirmation, "not to mention you have no idea how the others will vote, meaning it'll still be a coin toss."

"True, and after all is said and done it will take about two to three months before we get the results back, in that time to make a good name for yourself, you should complete as many pacts as you can, alright," Rias said with a bright smile, he left the room to prepare for tonight.

* * *

That night

Zen-Aku was in the club room ready to go through the portal as soon as it was set up, this would be their first glimpse as to what it's like in the true back alleys, dark corners, and the true underground of the human world, first step to that was to go through the Bratva, figuratively. It should be relatively easy to complete this job, more than likely start him out on something light and then let him work his way up into more dangerous jobs, that would at least get his blood pumping and give him some good exorcise and help train up his skills.

He really needed it too, today he got a glimpse at what his life will be like for a while, it wasn't at all what he wanted or liked, it was helping Rias and Asia move into his and Asia's new house, it was so noisy, they couldn't do anything in silence and always had to talk or make loud noises. The house wasn't anything special, just a generic house that looked a lot like Issei's, but a little bit bigger with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, two lavatories, a state of the art kitchen, standard living room with newest model television, basement, and finally an attic. After everything was moved and the rooms were reorganized just the way they wanted, his room at least which was the master bedroom, he got to see just what was in the walk-in closet that held what Rias bought, it was all black with dark gray or navy blue mixed in as well. There were business suits for official meetings, two tuxes, more casual clothing such as a few t-shirts, black cargo pants, shorts, jeans, and sweatpants, his footwear consisted of two pairs of dress shoes, one black and one brown, three sets of sneakers, and five pairs of black boots.

Then came a little surprise for him, Rias actually made several copies of his armor and had them put in a secret back panel of the closet, though there were also a few other armors that he was sure she put in just to mess with him, for instance, one looked like a knight-ranger highbrid (Koragg). One was like a black and gold lion based armor (Daishi), he didn't know how he was supposed to feel about that, maybe she decided to add that as a little bit of dog vs cat humor, or canine and feline humor as it were, but regardless it wasn't really a good joke at all. Then there was the one that looked like a black knight starting to go bald (Zeltrax), though it came with a shield like the wolf-knight armor did, it didn't look like a good design though and it looked like it had an ax with this one, as well as a sword, but he preferred his own weapon. The final armor was different compared to the others, this one held a shark as the base animal design with a serrated-like sword as its main weapon with the body armor taking the form of a ninja based warrior as the basic design (Vexacus), he didn't like this one either.

Zen-Aku asked Rias about that and she said that it was probably nice to have different armor to put on, instead of relying on the same set every time, he should change up and that way they could throw their enemies off balance with different styles of armor that might help him. He responded with a scoff, if he wanted something like that then he would have made it himself, he didn't tell her this of course, just scoffed and began walking away to finish rearranging his room to his liking, it was full of black and dark gray, though there was some silver as well.

"The circle's ready Zen-Aku," Rias broke him out of his thoughts, he focused on why he was here, for a job, "do me proud and make a good pact with the Bratva, let them know what the house of Gremory is all about," as if he would do that, stepping through he changed into his human form.

The room he found himself in was well lit, door and windows covered up and not letting any light in or out to ensure the secrecy of the place and meeting, finely furnished surroundings and a man sitting on a chair was what met him, that and a good dozen men with guns trained on him. He put his hands up and spoke clearly, "my name is Zen-Aku, I came here on behalf of Rias Gremory, I have a meeting with the Bratva boss in charge of the group, you requested someone to help with a job," a man stepped out from behind one of the lamps covering him.

He was relatively small compared to the others in the room, but he presented himself as though he was taller than them, "forgive the show of aggression, they have been on edge since they heard you were coming," his accent was heavy, but said as clearly as one might expect. "My name is Anatoly Knyazev, I'm the Pakhan of the Solntsevskaya Bratva, meaning I'm like the godfather if that helps any," he walked over to the duke org and stretched out his hand to shake, Zen-Aku took it while watching the others in the room.

"Why would the Bratva send a godfather to meet with a devil when a considerably lower ranking official would do," Zen-Aku stated as the Russian mobster led him to a set of seats for them to sit down and talk, he followed and set in one while making sure to keep track of everyone else.

"Awe, you misunderstand something, or have been misinformed, we did not come just to meet with you, this job that we require of you is no small thing, I was sent to lead what was to happen and it was left to my discretion as to who I use while we're here," Anatoly stated from his seat.

"Then this job requires at least a dozen men to get done while having an overseer to make sure it goes off smoothly, what exactly would this job entail that you would rather someone like me do it instead of your own men," the duke org asked leaning back a bit in his chair.

The Russian sighed as he also leaned back, "you see, the Bratva is a brotherhood, a family, and anyone who betrays their family needs to be punished severely, that is what needs to happen, a ten person group betrayed the rest of the brotherhood and has defected here, Kuoh, Japan. Did so in hopes of staying off the grid long enough to get their bearings and probably help figure out what to do next, we were originally going to kill them and the expected result was going to be minimal casualties on our side, all on theirs."

"Now you don't have to though, because you've heard of the introducing of deals that are fine with black market dealings and something like me taking the brunt of the attack and attacking in return will leave your side with no casualties, correct," Zen-Aku asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, you are correct, but we do have our reason for using you as well, there may be need to use you more in the future, there might also be a need to give your name and give references to others, so this will let us see how well you do, as a stepping stone you might say." Anatoly stated as he looked to a window as if looking out it, "normally we would call someone in America who owes me a favor, but we're not on speaking terms as of late so the only option of keeping the lives of my brothers safe is you and what you might be able to do."

"Then the only thing left to do is discuss payment," now was just business, no more information gathering about his client or his target, "for a usual fee, my group would usually suggest a modest payment in money or an item of equal value to the job that is to be done, your offer?"

The Russian smiled at the duke org before motioning with his hands and one of the Bratva grunts brought in a long case, long enough to fit a sword inside, and when the grunt put it on the table between them and opened it up, that's what it was, a sword that gave off a holy feeling from it. "This is a holy sword that my people have acquired, it was once stolen from the Vatican and through numerous back market deals found its way to my care, I know not of the legend that it is from, but as you can no doubt feel, it is undoubtedly an authentic sword," Anatoly informed.

Zen-Aku could feel the holy aura coming from it, no doubt that it was a holy sword, and if they could send it back to the Vatican somehow, that might help to foster good relations with the church, "this will be sufficient payment for what you require, where are they, I'll finish it alone."

"Are you sure you do not wish to have backup, it would be more useful if you had more people to watch your back," the duke org just shook his head and stood from his seat, "if you're that sure, here is the location, just know that pride can be ones own downfall as well," he stuck out a piece of paper. Zen-Aku took the offered piece of paper and didn't even wait for anything and just left via the door, he took a quick glance at the location and realized he knew the place, a warehouse on the other side of town, not very secret warehouse either, everyone knew it was a shady place.

When he got to the location he saw the place, it was a long building with windows close to the ceiling, an industrial size door, and now had a light coming from those usually dark windows, this was going to be easy, he just snuck in through the back without a sound and crept through it. He didn't make a sound as he weaved his way through the numerous hallways in the large building until he came to the main area for loading and unloading various goods, he immediately shadow phased over everything and appeared on the rafter looking down at what he saw.

It was the people that defected from the Bratva sitting around with their guns at ready in case the other group made their move, some were eating, some were playing cards, but they all looked ready to jump into a fight at a ready's notice, but too little too late as the saying goes. With a burst of shadow phasing he arrived in between the two playing cards and while they were shocked and before giving them time to react, took his claws and slashed at one's throat and before slamming his foot into the throat of the other one and crushing his wind pipe. He shadow phased again back to the railings as the others went to check on the two he just took out, none of them were covering the other's backs, just gathered around the dead men, so he took advantage of that and phased to stand behind one of them, looking over his shoulder.

When the man in front of him finally turned he jumped from being scared before he realized he didn't even recognize the duke org, he already had an upward palm strike to his throat and with a quick circling around, a hard knee to the right spot on his back where his spine snapped. Zen-Aku jerked the man in front of him and let him get riddled with bullets before using his human shield to approach the other men taking his right hand and coming under the left arm of the dead shield to grab the barrel, he swung it around and as the corpse dropped, so did the other guy. Since he did get a swift trigger imbedded into his temple and everything, but the guy didn't drop all the way because the duke org jerked the gun again and made the barrel slam into the opposing guys crotch where he let a girly scream, and as he hunched over was met with a hand.

The hand clutched at his face before vaulting over him and with a quick pull, snapped his neck killing the man, by now the others had reloaded though so their response was obvious to begin shooting again, but now Zen-Aku had another meat shield that took the attacks. He moved the body as they shot and with a quick shove had the dead body fly into two more defectors and making them tumble to the ground, the other four standing out of ammo and decided to go fist to fist until the other two got up to make it six against one.

Two approached him and one tried to kick him while the other one went for a jab, Zen-Aku just grabbed the leg and used it to block the jab from the other guy before taking his own leg and kicking away the other man and making him fly backwards into a crate that he got lodged in. He swept the leg out form under the guy whose leg he'd been holding and made him fall on his back before taking his clawed hand and slamming it through his throat, killing him and making the other two leap into action and lunge at him to throw him off balance. It didn't work since all he did in response was to charge back at them and at the last second, went right under their tackle and flip them over himself and land on their backs, he was about to pounce on them when the two he threw the dead body on before lunged at him. He kicked away the one on the right and grabbed the one on the left in headlock before slamming it on a metal beam that was close by, the recoil allowed him to lifting up the body with ease and slam him over his head and his back into the metal beam again, this time breaking his back.

The last two was ready with weapons, one on the left had a chain while the other had a large knife, Zen-Aku just stood there as the one on the left swung the chain at him and when the duke org brought up his arm to block it wrapped around it and the Russian traitor pulled. It didn't have the desired effect though, instead when the other man charged with the knife, he was met with a chain blocking the blade before the body attached to the chain came crashing into the him, the chain entangled them within its twisted form. Zen-Aku pulled again and this time both men were sent soaring into the air and over the rafter and hung from the other side, the chain entangled in such a way that it dug into their throats and squeezed the air from their lungs until they finally stopped struggling and hung there dead.

The last one left alive was crawling out of the crate he was still in, but when he didn't hear anything he looked up and saw that everyone else was dead, or close to it from blood loss, he soon turned pale himself at realizing what was about to happen, he was going to be killed. He scrambled to his feet and tried to flee, but the duke org was faster and grabbed the back of the coward's neck, with but a toss he was flung through the air and into his hanging fellow traitors, he quickly got up and tried to escape again, but this time he got a kick back to the hanging meat. This time he just began to rise slowly until he was standing fully and looking at the amber eyes of his soon-to-be murderer, Zen-Aku just bent down and picked up the knife that the other guy was carrying and tossed it in the air before catching it at the handle, he did that two more times. Then without warning through it straight and hit the coward in between his eyes and killed him instantly, everyone was dead now and his mission was complete, he didn't have to stay in this dreadful place any longer, so he left with his shadow phasing power and headed back.

It didn't take him long and when he arrived back, he was met with everyone looking at him wide eyed as if he just did the impossible, "my friend, you just executed ten people without taking much time at all, I think you just set a new record," Anatoly stated in shock from his seat.

"I'm not one to waste time on things," Zen-Aku stated as he walked calmly to where the case was and opened it to make sure of the contents before closing it to look at the Russian, "why are you paying me with this anyways, surely you have actual money that you can afford to pay in."

"True, but for what you have done, the symbolic nature is just as powerful, plus we have no use for the sword, we can't use it and the only reason we held onto it was to find someone who can send it to the right area of the Vatican, something we don't have contacts in," was his reply.

"Then I'm done now, I'll take my leave and let you go home," he picked up the case and began walking to the exit, he stopped when he was about to leave and looked back, his amber eyes accented by the moon, "be sure to spread the word, Zen-Aku is ready for work," with that he left.

* * *

A few days later

To say that Rias was happy was quite the understatement, apparently there were two good things to come out of this little arrangement, Asia was a natural at making pacts, apparently helping out someone else and then having Rias along to make sure things went okay for another request. Rias was also delighted to know that the job that Zen-Aku went on would lead to more jobs that would then lead to even more jobs, but this first job resulting in a nice form of a peace offering to the church had her bouncing form her seat, almost ran up to him to hug him to death, she didn't. This resulted in praise from everyone, and a bit of mention of irony from Koneko at how they obtained a holy sword straight from the Russian mob, though the only one not in the know was Kiba, Rias told them all not to mention this to him, apparently he had a past with them.

Every now and again though, Rias began staring out the window or in a random direction and looked to be lost in thought, so lost in thought that she often stared blankly at the same spot for hours at a time, a few times he thought about asking Akeno why that was, but decided against it. School life for Asia was going well, and when the subject of parents came up, she told the story she was instructed to, her mom died when she was young and her dad, Rouki Argento, moved to Japan to further her education and for him to continue working, he works from home.

Speaking of school, Issei's friends, secret crushes, and parents all received a letter from him and now, from the depths of their own idiotic minds, have come up with a theory that he has been kidnapped and is being dragged along, forced to do whatever his captor has ordered him to do. They were now all dead set on finding out what happened to him, even going so far as to try and set traps for anyone who might want to kidnap them just so they might have a chance to see him again, while the boy's parents were going through the police, but with no such luck on that end.

For now though, everyone was gathered in the club when Rias popped a creature into existence, it was a pink ball with cat ears and bat wings, a pointed arrow tail and pincers for hands, "this is my familiar Zen-Aku, I believe you two have met each other, back when you were Issei."

The bat turned into the girl that he remembered seeing that gave Issei the flyer, "I've got one too of course," Akeno mentioned before summoning her creature on the floor with a square circle, it was a green and short thing that looked like a walking cactus, it seems they're starting a mission.

"This is Shiro," Koneko stated while holding a white cat and he noticed how everyone else was just staring at what was about to happen, they looked disappointed when they realized that all they were going to get was him nodding on so that Kiba could introduce his own familiar.

"Kiba, you can show yours now," Rias started before there was a knock on the club doors, "come in," was called and entered the school council president, Sona Shitori, also known as Sona Sitri, along with the rest of her peerage, they were all eyeing the one monster in the room wearily.

"So that you're caught up Asia," the mentioned girl squeaked, "the one in the middle is Sona Shitori, the student body president, and the girl with the glasses behind her is Tsubaki Shira, and if I'm not mistaken, the others are members of the student council," Zen-Aku informed.

"Hello Sona, what can I do for you," Rias asked, as politely as she could of course, childhood friends and all that, but they were all interrupting something that she felt long overdue with Zen-Aku, and Asia really needed the help to cover for her lack of combat experience.

"Nothing, I just wanted to congratulate you on increasing the number of your servants and to introduce my news member," Sona casually mentioned while still eyeing the duke org that was once human, "Saji Genshirou, my pawn," Sona introduced the pawn with pride in her voice.

"This is my pawn, Zen-Aku," cue a little growl form the mentioned duke org, " and my bishop Asia Argento," Rias introduced with pride on each of her pieces, though she did notice how the duke org still growled at being a pawn but didn't seem to mention anything, maybe he was learning.

"Ha, I think you hurt dog breath's feelings when you called him a pawn, but let me tell you some news, you and your gaggle of slutty sluts don't deserve to be in the same room as distinguished devils like the Sitri's," Saji stated as if he was any better then a flea to the duke org.

"I suggest you stop talking," Zen-Aku said as he channeled some of his org energy and brought out his crescent blade and appeared behind Saji with the blade at his throat, "I'm not in the mood to handle small boasting form someone not worthy of my time," he appeared where he was before.

"Awe, he's mad, and thinks I'm afraid of him, not even gay prince charming over there can protect you from me, I took up four pawn pieces bro," Saji boasted arrogantly, but then he obviously didn't know how many pieces the duke org had taken, though neither did said duke org.

"You might wanna check your power rating, in truth Zen-Aku took up eight pawn pieces, two of which turned from regular pawns to mutation pieces, I'm sorry if this puts you in a bind," Rias said in a not really sorry kind of way, the look on the kid's face was priceless, just that funny.

"My apologies, he's young, I hope you'll forgive his youthful naivete, newbies don't always appreciate the finer points of civility, do they," Sona said calmly, "though when last we spoke you failed to mention just how much power it took to reincarnate someone such as this duke org."

"My apologies for that, I wasn't sure how to tell you exactly, but it seemed like it finally came about when your pawn unknowingly insulted my pawn," Rias said in another not really sorry tone, though if you payed attention there was an underlining hint of some sympathy there.

Sona looked expectedly at Saji and he moved to hold out his hand, to Asia for her to shake, which led him to enthusiastically get in her face, "hey, you sure you're not an angel, cause I'm pretty sure you just fell down from heaven," he was actually flirting using that line, what an idiot.

Though Zen-Aku was having none of that as he appeared behind him again and put a hand on his shoulder and began to squeeze, "if you're going to be hitting on her, at least do so when we're not about to discuss business," he let go of the vice grip and the boy had to rub the pain from it.

Despite knowing how many pawns Zen-Aku took, Saji still had his pride and refused to back down from a fellow pawn, "and what's it to you bitch face, I bet you're still on flyer duty, I don't do lame shit like that because I'm part of the team, getting a familiar and everything, bitch."

That is when it must have dawned on Sona about something, as did Rias, Zen-Aku saw both looks and knew what was about to happen, "wait a minute," everyone looked to him, "let me see if I can guess this correctly, the familiar process has a number restriction doesn't it."

"I wouldn't say number restriction, but the familiar master only takes people once a month, and by that I mean a peerage of course, no more than one at a time," Sona informed and it was obvious what was going to have to happen for them to be able to get one.

"In that case, why don't we have a friendly little contest to sort this whole thing out," Sona raised an eyebrow at what Rias could possibly be implying, "I don't mean a rating game, we'd never get permission for that, I mean settle this the high school way, with sports."

"Might as well, beats doing nothing all day, and since it is mainly involving me, Asia, and Saji, why don't the three of us all have a little two on one sports match, any sport he chooses" Zen-Aku stated as he began walking past the crowd that was in the room, "but be prepared to lose."

* * *

A day later

Zen-Aku was in the gym, he was in somewhat comfortable attire for light workouts, namely a black tracksuit, apparently the boy didn't want to fight just two on one, so it turned out that it became a peerage versus peerage dodge-ball match, and everyone was getting ready for it. "They outnumber us by two people so I've asked the extras to be a referees," Rias said before looking at Zen-Aku, "I don't know if you remember but to play, you grab a ball, aim it at the Sitri team and hit them right in the face," she was tossing a yellow and black ball to Kiba.

"Asia picked it up in no time, I'm sure you can do it too," Kiba commented as said bishop was stretching with Akeno by the queen bending the bishop forward to the floor and touching her feet, Zen-Aku just leaned against the stage with his arms crossed and watched as the others stretched.

"I don't need any lessons on how to play a child's game, I'm more insulted that the other pawn refused a challenge of a one on one fight to try and give him the bigger advantage, such a sad excuse for a man," Zen-Aku's insult to Saji didn't go unnoticed by the Sitri air though.

"Ready to rock and Roll," Sona asked as the opposing team came into view of everyone, all dressed in gym gear looking as intimidating as an apple pie, to Zen-Aku at least, no doubt the others will view them as a real challenge and but the duke org doubted he had to try.

They all got ready and in position for a game of dodge-ball, a blue haired girl on the other team had the ball, in an instant, she threw it and made it go straight for Koneko, only for Zen-Aku to grab it out of the air with one hand, he wasn't going to just wait for the ball to come to him. No, he was going to make sure nobody had a chance to attack him and completely show why they shouldn't mess with a duke org, the girl was so surprised that someone caught the ball that she didn't see the ball collide with her face and send her several feet back.

Tsubaki had the ball now and she threw it at Rias to get a head start, thing was, it was magically enhanced, so when the ball was again intercepted by the duke org, he gained a lot more respect from the Sitri team than he realized before he began to decimate the other team. Rias and her peerage tried as hard as they could to get a ball through catching it or grabbing a ball lying somewhere, but they were beaten to it by Zen-Aku who literally just stole it right from in front of it before decimating the entire Sitri team, it was a complete slaughter. When magic was introduced it became worse, magic was flying around everywhere and the only thing anyone on the Gremory team could do was watch as the duke org became a one man army catching ball after ball until the other team was just utterly defeated. He showed so much ferocity that Akeno was licking her lips with a blush on her face, Koneko was starting to get scared of what was going on, Asia was cuddling with her and off to the side, Kiba stared on wide eyed a the animosity, Rias, while impressed, was more concerned for the other team. The very last strike was after Sona sent a magically enhanced ball trying to strike at Zen-Aku's nuts, this turned out to be a big mistake as in the next minute, the duke org just held the ball in his hands and with a mighty throw, Saji was the one that was hit with a shot to the balls.

"A deal's a deal Sona, since we beat you, we get first pick at the familiars," Rias stated while the rest of the student council was leaving the gym, they were filled with bruises and sore spots from the utter humiliating pounding that they had just gone through, some sporting black eyes.

"As much as I hate to lose, I know when to admit it, but you should learn control," Sona admitted before turning to the duke org who showed no regret. "although, if this had been a rating game and not us just fooling around, there's no way you could have beat me," she said with confidence.

"You really think so, well I guess we won't know for sure until we actually play the game, but it'll be a while until we have to worry about that," Rias said back with some of her own confidence, this just showed her again how right she was in making Zen-Aku her pawn.

"Don't be so sure Rias, you never know what's coming up," Sona stated as she began to walk away to her peerage and leave so that Rias's peerage could celebrate, but she was sure to keep an eye on that duke org form here on out, that monster was a real brute here, and in combat.

* * *

Familiar forest

A few days later and they were all in the familiar forest, "who wants me," a man's voice shouted, they all looked up in a tree and saw a guy in brown cargo shorts, white tank top, and a blue backwards hat with red hair sticking out from the whole in the supposed to be back. "The master of the familiar, aka, Zatouji, if you've come to find familiars galore, you've come at the right time, that's for sure, the full moon is out to help you decide and I'll be the one to act as your guide," the guide almost recoiled at seeing Zen-Aku though, what a wimp.

"If you can't tell, Zatouji's way obsessed with making things rhyme," Akeno mentioned to the two new devils on the block, this was going to be more trouble than it was worth in Zen-Aku's opinion, but as long as he gets some possible added strength from this, it'll be a bit more bearable.

"Now how can I help you, tell me all your wants and desires, a strong one, a fast one, one that likes to set fires," Zatouji said in a rhythmic way, "perhaps a savage one that overpowers your foes and lets you ravage your bitch whores," that was obviously towards the duke org.

"I do not need something so disgraceful, what I require is a familiar that is good for support, power is not my issue but if I have to one, I'll need on that can have healing properties or possibly a riding affinity," Zen-Aku asked, that way some of his own power could be saved.

" That does makes sense, but I'd like one really cute and fun to be around," Asia mentioned since Zen-Aku got to tell what he wanted, she figured she'd give it a go, there was no harm in asking for something and see if they had one, and to be honest this was fun for her.

"Fun, done and done," Zatouji obviously liked the female population more than anyone else, given how Zen-Aku was not answered, they began walking and came across a lake that held a kind of power, "this lake is awesome, righteous and right, at the bottom you'll find magical sprites."

"Hm, as I recall, sprites are water creatures, one's that are able to breath in both water and air, sometimes even fly," the duke org said and everyone turned to him, "huh, Issei had an extensive knowledge of any type of creature he thought might be sexy, some of it is quite useful."

"Here we go, looks like a sprite is about to show," Zatouji said, the lake began to light up in the center, a beefy looking creature came out and gave a man's scream, "take a look, that's off the hook, undines water sprites, with megawatt power, a familiar like that would make your enemies cower."

"I'm both appalled and intrigued at how different the sprite is compared to what the boy has seen, or that the fact that a sprite could be a male, but I'm not going to judge him," Zen-Aku stated again, only this time got one shock of a lifetime when the familiar master decided to speak.

"Not he, sorry but this he's a she," Zatouji informed and the duke org just stood there for a second before turning to walk away, the familiar master quickly catching up to him and then ahead of the group, that thing being a woman is not at all what he saw, what a place this was.

They continued walking after that, "that sprite back there, she had really kind eyes, even though she's tough on the outside, I can tell she has a good heart," Asia commented, as they all walked, there was one thing you couldn't say about Asia, she doesn't know how to insult anyone.

Zatouji stopped before he spoke, "oh my, look high," they did and saw a small and blue dragon-like creature there, "cute but dangerous too, when they get angry, they have the power to shoot a lightning that's blue," the other looked amazed at what they were seeing.

"Hey, that type of dragon is really rare, isn't it, I think this is the first time I've ever seen one," Rias commented as well, it wasn't every day that you see a dragon of any sort so of course they would be a little amazed, but to Zen-Aku it just looked to be a waste to him.

"Do it now if you want this one claimed, once these dragons grow up, they can no longer be tamed," Zatouji advised wisely, still being annoying about it, but to be honest about it, this creature might just fit with Asia a lot more than it would with the others, she needs combat help.

"Zen-Aku, since you possess the power of the red dragon emperor, that sprite might turn out to be a pretty good fit," Akeno suggested, clearly she didn't remember what he said about wanting something that he could ride or be used as support only, he doesn't need the small power.

"Actually I think it would be a better fit for Asia since she needs the power boost more than I do, and as I said, I just need one for support," Zen-Aku said and began to walk away, but stopped when he heard Asia scream, he turned and saw a slime covering her and starting to fall on the others.

Zen-Aku honestly didn't know what to do, the perverted slime was eating away at their clothes, but only the girl's clothes, it got on Kiba's eyes and tried to go for his own, but with a swipe of his crescent blade, it was obliterated in an instant, but he knew he couldn't do the same with all of it. So he turned and listened to the screams of the girls as the clime fell on them and ate away at their clothes as Zatouji explained the slime, "eating off clothes is the random power of this weird slime, fun for a while but in the end, a complete and utter waste of time," that is so true.

Eventually the others got free and with a loud crack of thunder, the blue dragon from before got the slime off of Asia, with a quick shot of destruction, lightning, and brute strength, the slime was gone and a moment later, "you can turn back around Zen-Aku, we're fully clothed." He did so and saw that it was true, "aw, the sprite dragon used his blue lightning too," the sprite dragon flew around a few times before landing on Asia's shoulder, he heard Koneko mutter that the blue dragon was dope, but at least Asia got a familiar.

"Sprite dragons don't attack unless they believed their loved ones are in trouble, which in the familiar world mean that dragon and lovely lady should be together on the double," Zatouji stated while thinking out loud, which is good since this meant that now they could get the duke org one.

Asia began the spell, "in the name of Asia Argento and devils everywhere, I command you to accept this pact to be my familiar forever," when it was done the light died down and the sprite dragon was officially the ex-nun's familiar, and flue up to its new master's arms.

Zen-Aku began walking in a random direction to begin searching for his own familiar, Zatouji saw the direction he was headed in and paled instantly, "you don't want to head that way my man, that way is a dragon that takes the life out of every man, do you want to die my friend."

Zen-Aku looked back and saw the fear on the man's face, then looked at the direction he was headed for, until now he had been able to fight off any enemy that was before him, someone less experienced would go on with such a streak and test their luck, but the duke org knew better. So he turned back around and walked up to the familiar master, "then what do you suggest in way of," that was as far as he got as a loud howl brought their attention to a large wolf on a cliff, it was quite large, main body was pale blue and mane was white with a star on its face. Thought, that wasn't what drew Zen-Aku's attention, what drew his attention was the goldish-brown horn that protruded from its forehead, almost as if it was a duke org himself, but in a full wolf form, oh, and he was now charging for the duke org now, wonderful.

"That there is a direwolf, wonderful creatures of immense size and stamina, too bad that they have a temper that is fowl making you wanna head for the hills with an ah," Zatouji said as the wolf got closer until eventually it looked like it was going to ruthlessly attack them.

Just as the direwolf was about to stab Zen-Aku, the duke org himself landed a huge right hook on the beast and sent him slamming against a tree trunk, the wolf got back up and charged his horn with some kind of black lightning, and bowed his head to aim the horn before it shot out. The duke org put his hand in front of his face as if absorbing power from his own horn before shooting out his hand and from it came his own purple org lightning, the two lightnings met and exploded around the area, but when the smoke cleared neither was harmed. So the direwolf charged for the duke org and they both humped up to deliver a mighty blow to the other, but since Zen-Aku was faster, his blow landed first on the side of the direwolf's head and sent it crashing back down to the ground creating spiderweb cracks in the ground.

"Do you yield yet," Zen-Aku asked the direwolf as it laid on the ground and struggled to get back up until it stood fully on shaky legs, but with a glare from the duke org and the wolf's head bowed in submission to the one that beat it, and getting the rest of the club to become more impressed.

"Never thought I'd see the day when a direwolf was beaten, I thought for sure we may have about to have been eaten," Zatouji stated while scratching his head, not every day that someone is able to beat a direwolf into submission with just two blows, usually takes a lot more.

Zen-Aku began to perform the ritual, the green squares spun in place under the wolf, "in the name of Zen-Aku the duke org and devils everywhere, I command you to accept this pact to be my familiar forever," the glowing squares glowed one more time before coating the wolf and fading.

"Good, now you guys have familiars, a sprite dragon and a direwolf," Rias said happily to her servants as Asia held her sprite dragon and Zen-Aku pet his direwolf on the side of his mane, "let's head back to the club, we still have things to go over on how to summon them there."

"Very well, but after that is done we will need to start on some training, I've been putting this off for too long," Zen-Aku stated as he rose and walked to the others with the direwolf following him, "I don't know how well I'll be able to teach you since I've never done so, but I'll at least try."

He began walking, with the rest following him, until they were in a clearing and they teleported home where they were taught how to summon their familiars from the forest they just came from, it was a simple spell that anyone could use once they get a grasp on the concept of magic.

* * *

A day later

They were all in the clearing behind the clubhouse and Zen-Aku was facing the gathered peerage like he was a general commanding troupes, they were all in their P.E. gear, except for Zen-Aku, he was in his armor like usual and about to start teaching them how to properly fight, but first. "In order to fully grasp what each of you can do, I want each of you to attack me with your full ability, whether it is with a sword or with magic, hold nothing back and attack as if you're trying to kill me, because I'll be doing the same, first up is Kiba, after that will be Koneko, Akeno, then Rias." Ordinarily Rias would argue against such a thing, but the duke org already had a talk with her, the best way to get a grasp on someone's power is to have them try and kill you, and the best way to gain experience for combat is to have someone try to kill you, she couldn't argue back.

Kiba stepped forward while the others got back several feet and watched, Kiba pulled out a sword from nowhere and got into a stance, it was full of holes that he must have failed to notice, but Zen-Aku did which was the boy's first mistake, you should never let your enemy know your flaws. Kiba rushed forward intent on a head on strike at top speed to throw the duke org off balance, that was another mistake, because now he knew the direction the boy was coming from, and with already seeing his speed, it was easy to time it to catch his blade, which is what he did. Ignoring the gasps of shock from the stands, and the moment of shock for Kiba, Zen-Aku brought the sword to his right side with a jerk, then continuing the momentum turning it into a spin, he brought his leg up and axe-kicked the blonde boy into the ground forming an imprint. The boy bounced though and when he was at the apex of the bounce, brought the same foot and harshly kicked the knight to the side of the field where he was stopped by a slamming his back into a tree, Asia then rushed to heal the downed peerage member.

"Remember this," the Gremory peerage heard the duke org begin harshly, "in every training you treat it as a real fight, he let a moment's hesitation get the better of him, don't let it happen to you," they all gulped as they just stood there frozen in shock, "Koneko, get over here."

Koneko got to the other side of the field as quick as she could, remembering what he said just moments before she got into her own fighting stance, fists held to her face and eyes focused, yet he wasn't getting in any fighting stance, yet full of openings, and still she was hesitant to attack. Eventually her impatience finally won and she attacked with all the fight she could muster, first was a right jab that he stepped out of the way of, then he leaned back to avoid the follow-up haymaker, she used the force of that to spin herself into a roundhouse kick that he ducked under. In the instant he ducked he brought his left fist up and planted it into her stomach before bringing up his right fist and delivering a right cross to her left cheek while following through with that momentum and turning it to a spin kick against the side of her head, making her ears ring more. She wasn't out yet though, but just as she brought up her fists he landed an uppercut on her jaw that sent her into the air some, he side kicked her before chopping the side of her neck hard and making her crash to the ground, then finally he grabbed hold of her and tossed her to the others.

"You're holding back while fighting," Zen-Aku voiced plainly while crossing his arms over his armored chest, "that is both insulting to me as a warrior and your trainer, I don't care what baggage you might have before you come before me, it's gone when you fight, Akeno is next."

Akeno licked her lips as she walked to the place the others started from, unlike the other two who specialize in close to mid-range fighting, Akeno was more long range, so more than likely she wasn't going to move too much from her spot, only use barriers as a defense against him. Judging by her posture it was true, she had a pleasant smile on her face while staring at him, from what he knew of her sadist side, she more than likely got off on watching him beat her fellow peerage members, yet she was ready to any well trained or seasoned warrior. So when she all of a sudden brought her hand up and lightning shot from just summoned magic circles, he was ready and dodged with expert grace by jumping to the side before running for her, she continued to fire more until he was about half-way to her before she changed things up. She summoned many different magic circles around him and simultaneously shot lightning from them all, however he was expecting that so he shadow phased to right in front of her, but the circles were still locked on, so they automatically turned and shot their lightning. He phased away and she enacted a barrier just in time to block the lightning, but because she had to focus there so briefly, he used that time to land a heavy right leg kick to her back before quickly moving back a little and letting the lightning strike her, shocking her system. After the strike swung his left leg and landed a heavy kick to her stomach, while she was hunched over he vaulted over her hunched form, his back rolling against her own, when he was on her right side he did a perfect side kick, sending her flying back to where Rias was.

Rias stood there with a shocked look, he got around Akeno's defenses and made it look so easy, then beat her using her own attack to do it, "never rely solely on magic when in a fight," she heard the duke org himself say, yet that was her and Akeno's strongest point, "Rias."

Despite her nervousness about it, she cautiously walked to the other side like the others, already trying to strategies a plan, he was experienced enough to find a way to counter each one of their moves because they'd let him see them beforehand, she was able to piece that together. Saw straight through Kiba's speed from having previously seen it when they took out that stray devil, knew that Koneko would have an advantage if she didn't attack first yet knew she would grow too impatient and make the first move, which he was able to capitalize on. With Akeno not able to faring any better, what was she able to do when she fights just like her friend, though he's not able to use her own magic against her like that, from the way he was able to take them on from only seeing their magic and abilities once was worrying. What was less worrying was the fact that she never showed him her magic, so the duke org knew nothing about what she was capable of, that brought a little smirk to her face, though it faded when she saw stand nonchalantly while barely facing her, as if she wasn't worth facing.

That pissed her off and bit and made her attack first, inadvertently falling right into his trap, she brought forth her power and outstretched her arms while doing so, destruction surged at her center before shooting out like a wave over to where he was, making his shadow phasing useless. It would be obvious to anyone after seeing it enough that his shadow phasing, while extremely impressive, isn't able to go through a wall of energy or a wall at all, just increases his speed out in the open while also making him unable to pinpoint, block the effectiveness of that and he's done. Sadly that also was part of her trap to do that, because while it did block his use of phasing it also blocked her view of him and let him do what he wanted, which is essentially just using his own org energy pumped into his feet and jump high into the air, with a faded moon at his back. It was close to dark out now as they chose to do this after school and close to when night was almost here since nobody would be at the school then, so the sight before Rias when he jumped and showed himself was both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. She was able not to show it though and acted instantly with a few shots of destruction, only to be surprised yet again when the duke org dodged out of the way in midair, then finally pulling something out, it was his dagger flute, he threw it expertly and it grazed her cheek as it landed behind her. She was so shocked that she turned around and when she turned back after realizing her mistake right away, only to see amber eyes staring back at her, she jumped back to get some distance, only to feel pain in her ankles, it was only then that she realized what the duke org did. He tethered his energy to his flute dagger and with it attached at the time he threw it, all he had to do was startle her and send her back to the dagger at the right time for him to concentrate enough to basically move the blade to cut at both her ankles, stopping her in her tracks.

Rias only had enough time to look up at him before she was met with a knee to the face, automatically knocking her out and making him victorious in a four to one gauntlet match, Zen-Aku just sighed at the lack of true fighting experience they had, "we have a long way to go."

* * *

A/N: The voting is coming along nicely, so far the rankings are, 1. Venalana-4 votes, 2. Serafall-2 votes, 3. Gabriel-1 vote, 4(putting her at number four because technically this is love interest voting but thought i should give her something for those votes). Tiamat-two votes for a big sister role, still not sure if i'm actually going to do that yet, 5. Ophis-0 points. Remember that you have until valentine's day to cast your votes, please do so by posting a review or PM me. Guest stars are Anatoly from CW's Arrow, and Ranga from That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime. Throwbacks to other seasons of Power Rangers were a nice little shout out to them, but let me know if you want him in one just for the fun of it once in a while.


	4. Meeting, More Training, and BRUTALITY

Demon Duke Org

Chapter 4

Meeting, More Training, and BRUTALITY

This was not going as planned, all four teaming up to take on the damn monster has just proven to be as ineffective as them going against it one on one, when Kiba went in with his speed, Koneko was thrown against him, when Koneko went in, she was shocked from Akeno's lightning. Rias often went in for a destruction charged attack, only to be shocked when it got around or over it and proceeded to pound her into the ground with nothing but its fists, by the time it stopped or the others got to where they were to get it off her, she was sore all over and it was ready for them. Kiba went in for a sideways sword slash while its back was turned, only to meet its blade in return before sending an energy wave leaving him burned on the side of the field, Koneko coming in afterwards would have been a breather if she managed to land a hit, but every time was a failure. Either she was blocked, parried, dodged, or her momentum was used against her send her laying on her back, this last time she tried it dodged a right jab by going under it and kneeing her in the gut before using the same leg to kick her to where Kiba lay unconscious. Akeno and Rias were the last two to fall, Akeno trying to throw it off balance with lightning while Rias was using her power of destruction whenever it looked like it tripped, trouble was that it took time to charge up a good blast to send its way, so it recovered before it ever it. Eventually they both tired themselves out with the constant back and forth and proved that they had less stamina than what they thought, so as they slowed down they were helpless against the series of jabs and punches and kicks that they were pounded with that led to them fallen.

"I guess we will need to work on your stamina, magic production rate, skill, and actual team attacks," it said walking up to them and stepping into the moonlight, it was Zen-Aku, and after a week of beating them, it was time for him to get on to their next step of training. "Now that you know you're never going to beat me as you are now, as a group or separate, you are ready to begin the training regiment," he said as he walked over to lean against a tree as Asia finished her healing on them, it was good training for her as well for her own stamina.

"I get why you are beating us into the ground, to not only prove that we're no match for you and to make sure we know it and our limits," Rias stated as she set leaned against a tree as she held her arm, it might be broken, "but do you have to leave the bruises, people are starting to talk."

"Let them talk, if you have something so convenient as Asia's Twilight Healing, than you'll never learn the true lesson in all of this," Zen-Aku stated as he looked up to the crescent moon, "you cannot grow stronger if you don't put all of your blood, sweat, and tears into it, literally."

"You still could have lightened up a bit, we can't have rumors spreading about us getting into fights or being in abusive relationships," Akeno stated as she was rubbing her sore leg from where he landed one heavy leg sweep, "and what are your feet made of, lead."

"Product of training, and technically this is an abusive relationship of sorts, though the abuse is actually training, or it was until tonight, you've proven that you are now in need of the regiment I've made," Zen-Aku stated before pushing off of the tree, "let's go back inside for now."

The others just limped along with him until they were inside, Kiba felt as though half his body was on fire still, Koneko felt nauseous from the stomach shots she took, Akeno was the main one limping from her sore legs, and Rias walked in slumped from an extremely tired day. Not willing to keep up any tough act, Rias slumped into her desk chair, Akeno fell on the couch laying on her stomach, Koneko fell on the other couch on her back to not aggravate her stomach, and Kiba just fell on hard and cold floor curled up into a ball. There were each lost in their own thoughts now, Kiba on what it was that he wanted to grow stronger for, Koneko about what Zen-Aku had said about her full power, Akeno on if she could accept herself fully she might be able to beat him, and Rias on something it was time to bring up.

"Listen, Zen-Aku, Asia," Rias voiced and they turned to look at her, Asia from a chair in the corner and Zen-Aku from looking out the window, "the others know this but you two don't, I'm engaged to someone, his name is Riser Phenex, and he's an arrogant asshole of the highest degree. My father and his father made an agreement that him and I are to be wed and the only reason is to make super powerful babies that would have both mine and his powers, though I suspect that he'll take advantage of that and only use me in un ethical ways but I can't prove it. The worst thing that I feel can happen to me is being forced to marry someone like him, to take me and use me as he wants with no thought to what I want," she took her fist and opened and closed it, "I don't want that, I want to be loved for me and not my power, but I'm running out of time. At first they agreed to let me finish schooling in the human world, that means going through high school and college, but they're starting to go back on that deal in favor of trying to persuade me into going on with the wedding, and I have no idea about how to stop all of this."

"You want me to make a strategy for getting you out of your engagement," Zen-Aku guessed and got not a pleading look but a head shaking no as his answer, "you already have one then, what is it," he asked with a raised eyebrow, chances are it wasn't a good one and he needed to fix it.

She crossed her arms, "first there will be a meeting between me and Grayfia, that's my brother's queen and my families head maid, then I'm sure that Riser will be coming here to see if he can help persuade me thinking that I'm just playing hard to get and that I secretly like him, I don't. Then there will be things said and that is where a trump card I was told my brother has, a rating game to decide my fate of status, engaged or single, and the best part is that I have an ace of my own in the form of you, able to beat all of us down both together and separately."

Zen-Aku had to admit that it was descent plan, but he had a few better, ones where there is a chance to avoid any bloodshed, "I have a few better plans," she raised a skeptical eyebrow at him, "I'd rather avoid any and all bloodshed if at all necessary, so I'm going home to think. Is the meeting soon," she held up two fingers meaning two days, "when he gets here, don't do any cordial acts, no acts of hospitality, and don't let him act like he owns the place, and don't start a fight with him, just wait until I get there," he turned and opened the window to jump out.

When he was gone she rubbed her head, the duke org was always up to his own thing, she couldn't even count the number of times he'd just gone and did whatever it was that he wanted without any thought of what she needed him to do, like now, she already had a plan, a good one. Though, if one were to figure out a way without going through a lot of bloodshed, than she guessed it would be better to go that way, she just wished that he gave her more to work with as to what he was thinking other than don't instigate a fight yet don't show signs of hospitality.

"If you don't mind miss president," the voice of Asia caught her attention and disrupted her thoughts, "would it be okay if I stayed the night here, I'm too tired to move," she was snuggled up on the other side of the couch with Koneko, sometime during her thoughts they got blankets.

"I second that motion president," Akeno also voiced, "we're all too tired from the beating we took at that monster's hands, can we just stay here," Koneko purred in agreement with that as she curled up, thanks to Asia's healing she wasn't feeling like her stomach was destroyed.

Rias sighed at her peerage's behavior, "alright, to be honest I'm too tired to leave as well, my entire body feels like it's been put through a meat grinder," she laid her own head back on her comfy desk chair, had to be for how much she sat in it, and before long everyone was asleep.

Two days later (morning)

Today was the day, the day that Grayfia would be meeting with Rias and then Riser would come, Grayfia came the night before, then Rias summoned Akeno and they've been up ever since with minimum amount of sleep, so you can imagine how cranky she was when Zen-Aku arrived.

"I take it you two had an interesting night," Zen-Aku stated as he came in, he took notice of the maid in a blue and white French maid outfit, blue being the main color and white in the same places as a regular one, "and I assume you're this Grayfia that Rias has told me about."

"Yes, she is, and we're in a bad mood right now, had to stay up most of the night discussing things and barely got any sleep, so what are these ideas that you have regarding me ending my engagement with Riser," Rias said before Grayfia could answer, she wanted this over with soon.

"Fine, I have two different possibilities to end this without bloodshed, and I never said the plans were to end your engagement, just end the arguing without bloodshed," Zen-Aku stated as he walked to in front of her desk and set on the arm of the couch on the right side facing the door. "In order for the contract to be fulfilled you'd have to marry Riser and then eventually carry his children, correct," he asked and got a scowling nod in return, "one option is to talk with Riser, ask him for an open marriage, and make it clear that, married or not, he will not take your virginity. That will be left to whoever you find suitable to be your mate, and after that you can have your mate's kid and then go to Riser, have a child from him, fulfill the contract and then divorce him, you can even choose never to see your child by Riser if you wish, or do, your choice to make."

The reactions were mixed, Grayfia didn't react at all, chose instead to keep the stoic look she always had, Akeno stared at him wide eyed, from his blunt way of telling it or that she never thought of that, he couldn't tell which, it was Rias's reaction that drew his attention though. Her scowl deepened and some of her aura was showing, "I will not ever let him put anything of his inside of me, I'll never marry him and he'd never agree to that," she spoke calmly before breathing to calm down her aura and mood to stable levels.

"Also," Grayfia spoke up for the first time during the discussion, "an open marriage is forbidden by devil law, a man can have a harem of the same or opposite sex, but a man and woman cannot have their own harem of the same or opposite sex, and it also paints lady Rias in a bad light."

"Fine then, the second option is to take your contract and ask for it to be reworked," Zen-Aku stated and the three women turned to look at him intently, "we go to your father and brother and together we ask for you to have a much better leeway then what you originally had, not much. As an heiress you have to have the future of your family in mind, and as much as you don't like it some choice is beyond your control, however you may not be able to freely choose whoever you like, but you may have your pick of actually strong and good hearted suitors."

"That's your second option, devil style bachelorette," when the duke org turned his head confused Rias explained, "it's a program in America, men gather and compete for the hand of a beautiful woman in the hopes of wooing her and eventually marrying her or not, it doesn't actually happen much." Akeno, Grayfia, and Zen-Aku turned to look at her fully as if asking the age old question of 'are you serious', she rolled her shoulders up some and reached for her tea Akeno had prepared earlier, "I like to channel surf when I'm home alone on weekends," she took a sip calmly.

"Regardless of your habits in channel surfing my lady," Grayfia pointed out dryly and got a side glance back, "the only way that lord Riser, lord Phenex, your father, and your brother will agree to that is if you make lord Riser a candidate and approach his chances with an open mind."

"No need because we're not doing it," Rias announced and they just cast curious glances her way, "that would only invite more opportunities for Riser to put on an act while saying it was just to keep up appearances for the public, I will not be played like that under any circumstance."

"Then I have one more card to play in regards to what you can do to avoid bloodshed from one peerage fighting the other," they listened closely to what his final suggestion was, "you set up a contract for Riser's head, I take the contract and kill him quietly without anyone knowing I did it."

Rias turned her head to look at Grayfia, then back at Zen-Aku, then she pointed to the maid, who at that point let out a sigh, "is it really so painful for you to marry someone such as lord Riser that you're resorting to assassination attempts to get out of the engagement, even in front of me."

"I'm sorry to say that we are Grayfia," Rias said regrettably, "if the only thing I have left of getting out of this marriage is to assassinate Riser then I'm willing to do it," her regret turned deadly serious in an instant, "if you were at all sympathetic to my blight then you'd understand."

Grayfia looked down for a moment before sighing, "I am sympathetic to your blight my lady, however I'm not able to do anything for I am still head maid to house of Gremory, your brother's queen, and as your brother's queen acting as his envoy can only tell you this is a clan matter."

Rias sighed before looking to her pawn and saw his raised eyebrow, "clan matters aren't to be handled by the devil king, only the clan heads, the only role that the devil king or envoy of the devil king can do is make sure it does not escalate to a war between them, but that is it."

"Sounds like a pathetic excuse for someone to not deal with what should have already been dealt with, what a pathetic excuse for a devil king," Zen-Aku's statement was met with a large aura from Grayfia, daring him to say that again, so he did, "if he cared, why put her through this."

"As already stated, this is a clan matter, and whether or not he is the devil king makes no difference to this case since that is what he wrote into law to keep himself from being driven insane by the overwhelming work load that would come from it," Grayfia pointed out darkly.

"So he's still just a lazy king on top of a terrible brother, if he truly wanted to end such an arrangement that clearly caused his sister large amounts of heartache, he would have simply showed his power as the strongest devil and dared to challenge anyone who disputed his rule. An overwhelming work load is part of being in charge, the dolt should have put in that both parties have to agree to the arrangement of marriage before one can be made, or be able to be called off should they finally meet and one would sooner kill the other than marry," Zen-Aku stated plainly.

"I would hold my tongue if I were you, duke org, insults to lord Sirzechs Lucifer will not be tolerated," Grayfia looked angry now, showing more emotion than Rias had ever seen her show, "he is a great man and at times may be lazy, but he is by no means a terrible brother."

"He is," Rias voiced from her side with a snap and caused Grayfia to look at her in surprise, "if he truly did care than why is it I never get his consolation about what I'm going through, is there not a free day he has to come visit me to talk, is there not a time when he can apologize for his role? Why is it that I have to go through this regardless of what an arrangement that was made before I was born was made, how is it that he would feel if Millicas was forced to go through something like this, would he care then, maybe, but right now I don't see him giving a damn about me."

"If he was truly the most powerful devil, then why is it that he cannot show his power and dare any challengers, he doesn't even have to show much or be a hypocrite," they turned to Zen-Aku when he spoke, "say that this close to such a case of one party hating the other opened his eyes."

Grayfia looked down and contemplated her words, "I'll run everything said here by both lord Gremory and Lord Sirzechs, by the end of the day and after your classes are done with, please come here so that you can hear the answer," she teleported while looking downcast.

"That was quite the emotional meeting miss President," Akeno stated as she stepped forward next to Rias, she didn't look good and looked ready to cry from her bottled up emotions, "I know this is hard Rias, but you must stay strong, for all of us, for yourself," she hugged her friend close. Zen-Aku decided not to say any more and chose instead to head for the roof and wait until it was time for the afternoon meeting, more than likely it was going to come down to a lot of emotions boiling over and he had to prepare for that, he wasn't one to show them at any given time.

That afternoon

Everyone was in the clubroom, Kiba and Asia had just arrived together, Zen-Aku was leaning against the window sill, Koneko was already on the couch, Akeno stood to Rias's left while the red haired princess herself was sitting at her desk, Grayfia stood waiting for Asia to arrive. Then she did and set down, "my lady, if you don't mind, may I have your permission to speak openly," Grayfia asked but Rias held up her hand as if to say hold on for a minute, after that it looked like Rias was about to say something else but stopped as if trying to find what to say.

A magic circle formed on the ground before a wave of fire shot out and out came a blonde man in a red suit, he spoke when the fires died down, "and Riser has arrived in the human realm, I've come all this way to see you, my beloved Rias," you could smell the arrogance just pouring from him.

That ended when Rias spoke, "you know it is rude to just pop up wherever you wish without my permission for coming in," she spoke calmly while Riser's cocky smirk faltered for a moment before going back to it that made Zen-Aku just want to smack it off of him.

Riser moved to sit on the couch as he regarded Akeno with the same arrogance as before, "Rias's queen, would you be so kind as to make us some tea," he spoke as he moved and sat down patting the spot next to him expecting Rias to sit beside him, but she didn't move at all.

"You know it's rude to just sit down without permission from the one who owns the building you just entered, right," Rias spoke with a raised eyebrow while leaning back in her own chair, "and don't think that you can order around my servants like that, and you never responded earlier."

"My darling Rias, Riser is starting to feel insulted at your lack of hospitality, what would your brother have to say if he were to see this," Riser asked rhetorically as he crossed his legs and showed even more arrogance, now Zen-Aku was getting a little pissed off at the blonde douche.

"I don't really care what he'd say, or if you feel insulted, but I can guess as to why you're here, and the answer is the same as every other time you've tried to convince me, no, no I will not push up the wedding date, no I will not marry you right away, no I will not marry you," she said.

"But my darling, Riser believes your families circumstances are still as such that you cannot afford to be so selfish," Riser stated as if he was certain he would get his way, he was obviously used to it and thought he'd get what he wanted now, thankfully the peerage had an ace up their sleeves.

"I will not bring my family to ruin, but I do intend on denying you your right to our name since you have none, and let me be clear, my husband will be my choice," Rias stated with a fire in her eyes, "and I still say that since I never even got to decide on my betrothed that you are not it."

"Remember, it's imperative for devils to remain pure blood, we're still recovering numbers from the last war, both your father and Sirzechs decided this arrangement with the future of devils in mind," Riser reminded and stood up before he began to walk towards the desk Rias was at.

Only for Zen-Aku to appear before him and block his path with his crescent blade "my father, my brother, and my whole clan made this decision because they are in too great a rush, so for the final time, Riser, I will not marry you," Rias said and smirked as his smug expression dropped.

Riser glared at Zen-Aku, "for the final time Rias, Riser bears the reputation of the house of Phenex, smirching our good name is unacceptable, Riser doesn't care if he has to incinerate everyone in this room, you will return to the underworld with me," he began to unleash some of his power.

"There is no need for incineration," Grayfia voiced to calm them down, "my lady Rias, lord Riser, as you know, I am here by order of Sirzechs, which means there will be no disruption of peace," she sounded quite stern and that is when Riser began backing down, not that it mattered.

"When told such an ominous thing by someone known as the ultimate queen, even Riser can become somewhat fearful," Riser was obviously the first to back down, but Zen-Aku kept his crescent blade out and made sure to show it to Riser, who glared at the duke org with hate.

"My master anticipated there would be a conflict of some sort, as such, he has assigned me a last resort, should communication breakdown," Grayfia informed just as stoically as before as though her voice never had a threatening edge to it, it was almost scary.

"What about what we discussed earlier, was nothing we said in any way able to change their minds," Rias asked and Riser raised his eyebrow in curiosity, but chose not to say anything for some entertainment from his fiancé trying desperately to get free one last time.

Grayfia sighed, "no it did not, no choice was even taken a minute of thought before your father shot them down, he is quite mad now and as such has gotten into an argument with your mother over this, as I am aware they are still fighting with each other now, it is not looking very good."

"Yes, of course he denied it," Rias said before looking down and that is where Riser believed he had her, this was her last hope and now she was out of options but to marry him, "what about the last resort that my brother suggested, I'm almost certain that I know what it is."

"If my lady insists on putting her personal preference above those of her family, she is to settle this via a rating game with lord Riser," Grayfia informed, clearly Rias was expecting this and smiled openly about how this turned out, just as she had originally planned to begin with.

"Riser has played through numerous rating games and has scored several wins for himself, unfortunately, my inexperienced bride has never even qualified for an official game," Riser commented with a smug look on his face, it was obvious that he was missing something obvious.

"All that means is that you know the rules, the extent of your knowledge of all of our abilities is limited and yet there are numerous recording of rating games, we have the bigger advantage over you, so do not act cocky, overconfidence will be your downfall," Zen-Aku stated plainly.

"Rias, I have to ask, is this adorable group the extant of your servants, they're all you have," Riser asked, clearly ignoring the duke org with a glare, Riser snapped his fingers and out came an all-female peerage, comprising of various types of them, but none of them were by any means ugly. "Riser has fifteen pieces, in other words, I have a complete set," Riser stated as they all looked at the group they were about to fight against and some recoiled in fear at seeing the duke org, what kind of beast would they be fighting, what a terrible looking guy they have to fight.

"Numbers mean nothing if you don't know how to properly use them, or if your opponent is stronger than all of them combined, your tactics of intimidation is pathetic," Zen-Aku stated again, this time with the goal of getting under the Phenex's skin and it worked.

Riser was enraged by the continued back-talk from the low born hideous devil, "I have had enough of your insolence, Mira," Riser called and a short blue haired girl stepped forward, Zen-Aku walked calmly to the far end of the room where nobody else was, that is when she acted.

She charged faster than many others could follow, yet Zen-Aku obviously saw through it and in an instant turned so that she could attack his full stomach, only for the girl to stop as he grabbed at her staff before it hit him, she was stronger than she looked, so he was forced to act again. As he caught the staff with his left hand, he turned and let the staff pass through where he was before swinging his right foot and bringing it around to strike at the back of her head, and after that he grabbed the back of her neck while she was dazed from the head strike.

The duke org held her out in front of him and squeezed and watched as they all tensed as their fellow peerage member was in pain, "you need a thousand years more training before you can take me on," he said before throwing her to the rest of her peerage who caught her easily.

"As you can see Riser, even my pawn is more than a match for anyone you can throw at him, even with your _experience_ ," Rias said with a mocking tone at the experience, "Grayfia, you can tell my brother that I agree to the rating game, we can clearly handle ourselves."

"You will pay for that you insolent dog," Riser said as he turned back to walk away to his peerage, and stopped beside of his queen, "Riser will see you at the game," Riser left with his magic circle engulfed in flames as he and his peerage left, everyone else just breathed a sigh of relief.

"Now that the marriage business has concluded for now," Grayfia stated as she turned to the duke org, "I must inform you that there has never been any previous record of anything referred to as an org in our devil culture, would you please inform me as to why that is, and what you are."

"More than likely because I'm from a different world than the one you are familiar with, so it is not surprising there would be no mention of my species," Zen-Aku stated as if it was a trivial thing, "but make no mistake when I tell you that I am probably the last of my kind, and a duke."

"I see," Grayfia stated as she turned to walk to the empty space that Riser and his peerage left at, "the rating game will be in ten days time, use that time to train, despite how strong you may be, you are at a far greater disadvantage in regards to number of pieces."

She was about to leave when the duke org walked to in front of her, "before you go I need to talk with you privately for a moment," he stated before beginning to walk out the door and expected her to follow, it was only because of her curiosity that she did so, that and his tone of authority.

The others just stared after them for a little bit before beginning to hang about until he got back, but a couple minutes in everyone felt a chill run through them, "everyone else felt that, right," Rias asked and everyone nodded, they soon felt dread creeping up when the duke org returned.

"We'll be going to the mountains to train I assume," Rias nodded and then the duke org left for but a moment before returning again, "you guys are going to have fun this weekend," you could just hear the evil grin on him, you can't see it from his mask but you could just hear the grin.

They all began sweating with fear, his test for the regiment was a brutal beating, what was going to be the actual training then, Kiba discretely tried to make it to the door before he was caught by Zen-Aku's glare, "you're an evil trainer, you know that," Rias asked and the duke org shrugged.

Mountains

Zen-Aku was having much more fun than he thought he'd have, the entire club was carrying their 'luggage' up themselves, all of them, Rias was struggling under the weight, as was Akeno and Asia, they were the weakest physically so they had much more difficulty then the other two. Kiba and Koneko were going up at a much better pace, then again they were used to physical training instead of magic based so it was only natural for them to be much better at physical work as well, the only problem was how much they were holding back, well Koneko mostly.

"I hate you," Rias shouted up at him at the top of the hill to the training area, she however was still straining with her luggage while going up the mountain, funny thing was that she never remembered packing luggage that heavy, always only packed what she knew she could carry.

"Too bad I don't care, now get moving," Zen-Aku exclaimed as he summoned his crescent blade and shot a crescent wave at there backs to get them moving faster, he often did that on their way up, helped motivate them and helped him with target practice, had to keep his skills up as well.

It worked because they quickened their pace a bit after almost getting hit with the wave for the dozenth time that day, "you are evil," Koneko stated from beside him in her usual monotone voice, Kiba was just now making it to them as well, the rest still had a while before they arrived.

"This was just the track to the training facility, and until they get here, since you two arrived first, guess who gets to start," he stated before swinging his foot and kicking her over to the other side of the front yard on the pack, in hindsight, she should have known that training started now.

Koneko tried to unfasten herself from the pack when she felt what was inside brush up against her, she hurriedly finished freeing herself from the pack and checked what was inside, nothing was inside it except for a bunch of rocks, none of the food she packed, "you'll pay for that, bitch."

"Relax pussycat," Zen-Aku advised and watched her twitch at the name, "I had Grayfia teleport all previously packed stuff inside already," she didn't seem as tense after that information, "now get to showing your true form and power, nobody around here to come across us by accident."

Kiba knew where this will lead to and the sensitivity of the matter for Koneko, so he spoke up, "she doesn't want to use that power, it's too unstable and could easily hurt those around her if she gets out of control, she doesn't want to put others at risk when she uses the power of."

"Senjutsu," Zen-Aku interrupted with the name and both Kiba and Koneko were shocked, "don't look surprised, I'm very old, gone through multiple hosts, some of whom through no other reason than natural strength I retained their memories of their own techniques, one a senjutsu master."

"Then you know how dangerous it is," Koneko stated plainly before showing her tail and ears, "my older sister lost her way because she was drunk on the power that the senjutsu provided her and killed her former master to become a stray and then she left me without a care in the world."

"Wrong," the duke org stated just as plainly to the little devil, "senjutsu is the taking in of natural energy provided to you by the earth, then purifying it within your own body, it doesn't corrupt and it doesn't make people get drunk on the power, unlike org power that is born from pollution."

"That might be on your world, but here it could be quite different, while your senjutsu purifies, what if the one's that the Nekomata have is one filled with corruption," Kiba countered with his own logic argument, he didn't want to risk the duke org being wrong and Koneko getting hurt.

"Then they should call it something else besides senjutsu," Zen-Aku stated as he looked over his shoulder at the boy, then turned back to the girl, "at its base form, all senjutsu is the same, the taking and purification of nature energy, only the way it is physically manifested may change."

"What if that nature that was being taken in was polluted itself," the voice of Rias interrupted them, she didn't look to good and looked to be ready to fall over at any moment, "if the nature that was taken in was polluted, then the person would become polluted themselves, right."

"No, there can be no corrupt nature energy, senjutsu pulls everything good about nature, the air that fresh trees provide, the smell of flowers on a nice spring day, the calm chill air in the night, if an area is polluted there is no way that the corrupt nature energy can be pulled from it." They all still looked concern about her using the power though, "but I never said it was easy to master, the best way for someone to master it was to take it in constantly and let their body get used to it, otherwise they'd implode from the effects it can have, and I mean that literally."

"What was it you said earlier, about it not taking the same physical manifestation," Akeno also voiced as she and Asia finally got there as well, or at least just now voiced that they were there, they looked to be in about as bad a shape as Rias, he would smiled if he wasn't being serious.

"On my world, energy, magic, senjutsu, it didn't matter the energy, it was just used as if it was like waving your hand, control the elements, extend your body parts, grow taller than a skyscraper, there were many ways many things were used, not at all used with a magic circle. Which is what is done here, most of the time when magic is used a magic circle is shown, this pattern seems to be followed in other energies as well, so together I've come to a conclusion that senjutsu is used with a type of magic circle type of thing as well, physical manifestation," he said.

"Then why did Kuroka leave me," Koneko said in a voice just above a whisper, "she killed her master and left me, I was persecuted and would have been executed had it not been for Sirzechs and Rias, why would she leave me and let that happen to me if she cared enough at all."

"Because you would have been on the run with her, tell me you would have had a better life had you stayed with your sister instead," Zen-Aku ordered her and she said nothing, "you were a child that needed to be provided for, so she obviously left you in hopes that you would find a family."

They all thought on what he said and realized that he was right, Kuroka raised Koneko as if she was her mother, but when she went on the run then there was no reason to bring Koneko into that life, make her into a criminal as well, "then what do I do when I see her again?"

"That is something only you can answer," Zen-Aku told her before walking to the front of the group, "now that the internal crisis are done for the moment, it is time to train, magic users will get physical training while physical fighters will be getting some magic improvement training." He went back over to the large pack that Koneko was carrying and took out the individual packs still filled with rocks, "I want you to put these heavier packs on and do laps around the estate, go until you drop to the ground, you have thirty seconds to rest before you continue."

They stared at him with horror, knowing that there was only three people who weren't physically inclined, maybe Rias could get them small break first, "can't we go change into our workout clothes first, we did hike all the way up here, hiking clothes are different from workout clothes."

"No, you won't be fighting in workout clothes, you'll be fighting in your every day clothes, so you need to learn to work in all clothing and not waste time changing them," Zen-Aku walked up to the three, Akeno, Asia, and Rias, and tied the packs to them, it felt like they were being crushed. They began to move at a slow pace, but they were moving, then he set his eyes on Kiba and Koneko, "now for you two," he said as he walked up to them, he pushed Kiba to the ground and made him fall on his butt, "draw your magic power around you and keep it there until you pass out."

Kiba did as instructed, though why it was until he passed out he had no clue, until he found out the hard way that his magic right now was weak, he lasted a full thirty seconds until he couldn't stand it and passed out from overuse of his magic, when he woke up, a note said do it again.

Koneko was being led to the back of the estate, out of the way of the runners or magic training, here she was to draw out all the power of her Nekomata powers and use them, if the duke org came back and saw her only using her rook strength, he would beat her like never before.

After what felt like forever for the runners, their limbs were like jelly and their backs hurt like never before, despite this, Zen-Aku forced them to start punching wooden targets repeatedly, right then left for as long as they could, then keep going until he told them to stop, he never did.

Not until nightfall at least, when he walked back out of the woods with a panting and slightly bruised Koneko, she use her senjutsu powers as best she could, which was still a big step for her, she looked a little cute with her ears and tail out, to the girls at least, Kiba was out cold. Constant use of his magic to it's limit was a type of training the boy didn't like, it forced him to grow tired faster and with each use you could see the sweat start to accumulate until it was time for a long nap, he tried one more time against his bodies wishes and fell unconscious. The girls that were using their dummies were rubbing their sore hands, it felt like they were broken in several places, the evil bastard never even bothered to put any kind of padding on them and decided to make them punch it bare handed and hard wood, they couldn't even close their hands anymore.

"Nicely done, not a single one of you quit and stuck with it all the way through, I expected at least Asia to quit and breakdown and cry," Zen-Aku mentioned and earned a tear from the girl, "but you proved to be as strong as everyone else, very well done," that made the girl smile. "Since the warm up is out of the way, who's ready for the actual training for the day to begin," everyone fainted, they didn't even give a response and just fainted, except Kiba who was still unconscious, but the way they fainted from his joke question got them all to do what he wanted.

This was going to be hell for them, so it was better that they get the rest they needed now, because for the next nine days, they will really be going through the duke org boot camp, they then had one day to rest, they would need it after he was done breaking them to the bone.

Day of the rating game

It was now the day of the rating game and everyone was gathered in the clubroom, Rias was trying to keep her cool while her and Akeno was drinking some tea, Kiba was checking his sword, Koneko was fixing her cat print gloves, Asia sat quietly in her nun attire, Zen-Aku was by the window. The doors to the club room opened up and in came Sona with Tsubaki in tow, "sorry if I'm interrupting," she said once Tsubaki had closed the door, she saw everyone had gathered and keeping their cool while calmly going about their business, though she did see something with Zen-Aku.

"No, please come on in Sona," Rias offered, "is the live broadcast of the rating game so family members can watch set up," Rias asked her friend pleasantly, she was just thinking up some possible general strategies for the rating game, just some last minute thoughts she was having.

"Yes, it is, it's your first time in a rating game of this or any other caliber, I wouldn't miss an event like this for anything," Sona mentioned standing perfectly straight with her queen taking glances at the duke org and what he was carrying, it was hard to tell what it was in the bag.

"Well, I promise to do everything in my power to make it interesting for you," Rias stated before a purple magic circle appeared and Grayfia came out of it, she stood for a minute and regarded everyone with an eye before eyes falling on the form of the duke org and his mysterious bag.

"It's almost time, I hope you are ready for this my lady, in a few moments, we'll use this magic circle to transport you and your peerage to the battlefield," she informed, she was as respectful as always with a hint of annoyance, from what they peerage could only guess, but chose not to.

"I'll be in the student council broadcast booth calling the game, we'll be cheering you on, good luck," Sona commented before turning to leave and Tsubaki opening the door for her and keeping it open when Rias called out again, waiting for the last comments spoken before leaving.

"Thanks a lot, just try and keep the play by play fair," Rias commented to her retreating form playfully, it wasn't every day that your oldest friend was broadcasting a game, but in spite of wanting it commentated in her favor, it was only fair that it was done right by both parties.

"Oh, I'll keep it clean, though if I was a betting girl, I'd say your going to beat that scumbag seven ways to Sunday," Sona commented before making her leave, taking one last look at the gather peerage along with her queen, this was going to be quite the show for the audience.

A red magic circle appeared and glowed a bright red, "it is time lady Rias, if you and your peerage would step inside," Grayfia said with a bow while waiting just outside the magic circle, they all got up and stood inside the magic circle, all ready for what their field might be, all still nervous.

What they saw when they finished teleporting was the exact copy of the club room they started in, it was in such a fine detail that even the tiniest drop of paint on one of the paintings was identical to the original, but you could feel the magic coursing through the place if you felt for it.

"Your attention please, welcome everyone, my name is Grayfia, I am a servant in the house of Gremory, and I will be your referee during today's match," there was a slight pause before she started again, "to create the battlefield, I took suggestions from both lady Rias and lord Riser. You may recognize this place as it's an exact replica of Kuoh Academy, an educational institution in the human world," Grayfia announced and took a long pause to let the young devils get used to the field they will be fighting in, it didn't take long for her to think enough time was give. "Each team has been given an area that will serve as its home base, lady Rias and her crew will be in the Occult Research Club headquarters in the old schoolhouse, lord Riser's home base will be located in the principal's office in the new schoolhouse. Pawns will be promoted if they can make their way to the home base of the opposing team, good luck to all," Grayfia just finished explaining the rules and why the school was picked before stopping to again let the young devils make last minute preparations.

Koneko brought over a small red orb to Zen-Aku and he took it and let it float to and in his ear as Rias explained its function, "these'll help us communicate during the battle," Asia looked to be putting hers in manually instead of letting it float to her ear, she must be really nervous today.

Zen-Aku looked himself over one last time before silently nodding at what he was packing, unlike his crescent blade and flute dagger, this item can't be summoned by his org energy and was manually put on him, a bell sounded and Grayfia stated, "all right devils, let the game begin."

Rias pulled out a basic layout of the school before speaking, "the enemy base is just across the way, cutting through the school grounds might be quick, but it's not an option, they'll see coming a mile away, and then we might as well be sitting ducks," not bad at pointing out the obvious. "If we go through the track field and sneak in the back we might have the element of surprise on our side, but that's the most obvious entry point available, and Riser knows it, my guess is he'll station a group of knights or rooks with strong mobility right behind the athletic clubhouse."

"That doesn't leave us with very many options then, does it," Akeno thought out loud as she looked over the map as well, there was something that Zen-Aku was missing on that map though as he looked it over, but what was it, the basic grounds and the sections was shown plainly.

"First things first, I think we should secure the gymnasium before we do anything else, it's adjacent to their home base and not too far from us, but most importantly it will serve as a diversion to the other side," Kiba suggested, again that was smartly said, but something else.

"The gymnasium is basically in the center of the battlefield, whoever gets to it first is going to have a leg up for sure," Akeno commented, that was true, and to be honest it was also a possible good chance to be easily attacked as well, but that was obviously the unspoken thought to the all.

"Good call, given the options we have, that's our best chance, Koneko, do you think you can handle getting in the gym and locking it down," Rias asked and the girl nodded, "to do that, we need to secure a defensive perimeter, Kiba and Koneko, go out there and set up some traps in the woods." The two quickly left after that before Rias moved on to the next part of the plan, "Akeno, next we'll need your expertise, when they're done setting the traps, your illusion magic is going to come in handy, so be prepared," now it was time for her to head out and leave only three in the room. "Asia, you're my healing support, so in order to keep you safe you need to stay close to base, because if we lose you, we're going to be in big trouble out there," Rias moved and sat on the couch and sitting down, waiting for the right moment, oh she almost forgot, "Zen-Aku, are you ready?"

Zen-Aku turned to her from studying the map closely, "yes, I was just thinking on something I thought I was missing, like for instance the underground, we could use any underground tunnels or caverns to move around better than we could on the ground, this map doesn't show any."

"That's because there's not any," Rias informed, she thought about that as well for a different use though than just traveling, "if you were to open up a book in this copied space, you'd find it blank, only the surface is the exact copy, to keep the system from overloading it has to be kept like that." The duke org hummed in thought as he processed the information, that was one load off his chest, another load off as he realized that they couldn't use attacks like that either, he was still in thought when Rias got the call that everything was ready, it was showtime, time to have fun. "Alright guys, here's the game plan, I've decided to change something, Koneko, you're to provide backup to Kiba when he takes on whoever Riser sends to the base with help from Akeno's illusion magic, Zen-Aku is to head to the gym and make a statement to Riser, we'll go from there."

That was a good plan, the duke org worked better alone anyways, no one to see him other than those girls is quite fine with him, so he began heading to the gym, decided going in through the back was fine, as soon as he got there he headed for the rafters, then he saw his victims. They were only four of them there to fight him, a set of twins that obviously had chainsaws hidden behind their backs while trying to look innocent, the small blue haired girl with the staff that he beat the first time they met, and finally a ravenette in a Chinese inspired dress.

They were all looking for him as they thought they heard someone come in, "smells like Gremory filth," the rook named Xuelan stated before the lights came on just below the duke org, "come out, come out wherever you are," they were all looking to the stage, where he was expected to be.

Zen-Aku obviously couldn't fight them head on if he wanted to preserve his strength, the rook named Xuelan looked to be a leg based fighter, you could tell from them being disproportionate to the rest of her body from the obvious workout that made her focus more on her legs. The three pawns looked different, the girl known as Mira looked a bit slower and weaker than what he sensed from her back at the meeting, Riser must have had all his pawns promoted to queen before the meeting for an intimidation tactic, not bad but not enough. It was the two twins, Ile and Nel, with the chainsaws that concerned him a bit though, they looked to be innocent, but their eyes held a sic sadistic glint to them, they enjoyed what they do and thought about few other things, Zen-Aku knew a few orgs like that as well.

Zen-Aku picked his position good, with the right sound, music for instance, it would be quite impossible to pinpoint his position, so he silently summoned his flute dagger and began to play his song, and the girls immediately got on the defensive and formed a circle at each other's backs. They looked around as they did this, "we know you're here, she sent only one person to fight the four of us, I think we've just been insulted," despite not being able to find him, Xuelan stated that with a smirk and a somewhat smug expression thinking he was too cowardly to fight her.

As the song went on, the girls got more and more nervous because they couldn't find him, what was worse is that when they looked up, all they could see was the lights shining in their eyes since he was standing on the rafter just above one of the lights directly over them, too easy. When the song stopped and the sighed in relief, he dropped and landed between them while at the same exact moment summoning his crescent blade, he spun as he descended and with clean cuts created too many strike marks on their backs for them to ignore the pain. A few of the cuts he was sure to land where he knew was close to their spines, and when he got to the ground fully and made the last few cuts, carved right through their lower spines at just the right spot to sever their spines and knock them out of the game, and paralyze them.

Their bodies evaporated in a light as they were twitching from the sudden attack, he was able to do that at the right time with limited time to think, knew where they would be and the best way to take them down, the girls were both amazed and in awe of the beast that just took them out.

THREE OF LORD RISER'S PAWNS AND ONE OF LORD RISER'S ROOKS RETIRED

Then came the call he was expecting after that announcement, "what went on in there Zen-Aku, I thought you'd make a statement but you beat them a lot slower than I expected," she paused for a moment before speaking again, "were they actually stronger than you expected them to be?"

"No, I thought I'd play them a song to help ease their final moments, but I think I severed their spines, if they survive, I doubt their renowned phoenix tears will help them, more than likely they'll be paralyzed for the rest of their lives," Zen-Aku informed her calmly.

"That was nice of you, but don't forget that they won't show you any mercy from, and from here on out the battles will more than likely be outside," Rias informed to him and he just grunted to signify that he heard her, "it's time to start, Kiba and Koneko call out the rest of his peerage." That was smart thinking, distract your opponent and have them focus on where you just attacked to draw their attention away from where you don't want them to see, Riser, caught up in rage won't see it, "Akeno go take on Riser while Zen-Aku I want taking out whatever he can of them."

"That's something I can do," Zen-Aku replied before calmly walking outside the front door, if she wanted chaos, then he knew just the way he wanted to cause some, as he walked though, he felt as though something was off, the air and ground got a sense of… danger, then he jumped back. The place where he stood just seconds ago was engulfed in an explosion, but first there was a purple magic circle, so the enemy was sending the big players to fight him early on, very well, all he had to do was look up to see his enemy, the purple haired queen to Riser, Yubelluna.

"You did well in taking out those four we sent here, but it's time to give up the fight, mut, no matter how hard you struggle, you won't win, you can't win," Yubelluna said as she created another magic circle bomb, it went off half a second after he jumped away from that spot. "The way you disrespected my master was unforgivable," another explosion and another dodge, "but I can't deny the sense of appeal that you draw, you make me want to fight you," this time multiple explosions in succession while he handspring back until she stopped the barrage.

THREE OF LORD RISER'S PAWNS RETIRED

"Well, I didn't expect such a fight from your group," Yubelluna tried for a larger blast radius this time and to get out he phase shifted out of the target area and on the gym roof, "but we still have nine apposed to your five, we still out number you all," this time, the large blast claimed the gym.

"Is this all that the queen of Riser Phenex has to offer in a fight, only a few circles that explode, that's all you can do," Zen-Aku asked as she produced more and more exploding magic circles only for him to dodge, the ground becoming littered with holes and singed spots form them.

"What about you, the only thing you're doing is dodging like a coward," Yubelluna refused to let loose on the attacks, didn't actually know what he could do if he was given the chance, "I bet you can't even fight, such an ugly beast just for show and intimidation tactics, how pathetic."

Zen-Aku didn't appreciate that comment, so when she launched her next magic bomb attack, he phased before it went off, phased right up to her before she could react and grabbed her throat before punching her face with a left jab then bringing his right leg against her temple. This sent her crashing to the ground before he brought out his crescent blade in firing mode, and then he performed a trick he'd been working on to expand his repertoire, he charged up his crescent wave, but instead of launching it, sent it charged to the tip of his blade. He pointed that tip in the direction of Yubelluna, and with but a slight release of energy, shot the concentrated crescent wave to the enemy queen, it was large enough to blast a bowling ball sized hole through her, and that is what he did, shooting it right through her stomach saying, "crescent shot."

Yubelluna immediately coughed up blood from the shot, she had no time to or way of blocking it, her impact alone was enough to kick up a dust cloud blocking her from view, but also blocking her view of him, but despite her predicament, she smiled at him, he wondered why for but a moment. The next moment was almost surprised when he saw that she reached for a small vial form her cleavage before opening it, and then finally drinking it, the wound on her stomach healed, as did her clothes and any scruff marks she got from the encounter, "I can't believe I had to use it."

"Let me guess, the famous Phoenix tears that your lord and his family can produce," Zen-Aku asked and got a nod as she rose from the ground slowly with a glare at him staying up with his wings, "not that it matters, we already know your plan like you know ours no doubt." That brought a scowl at him for thinking he knew their plan, "you planned on crushing our spirits before going for the final blow, but our spirits are greater than when we started because we're proving to be able to defeat you, while you are proving to having difficulty with us."

"That may be true, but we are still servants to the house of Phenex, servants to lord Riser, who is immortal, we will win this and he will have the lady Gremory's hand in marriage, with the Phoenix tears, their immortality, and rating game prowess, you have no chance of winning," she stated. She then summoned as many magic circles around him in the air as her magic would allow, as well as many different sizes as well, it was time to teach this mut what it meant to face a true queen, "bombing cage," she called out and caused the biggest explosion her group had ever seen.

The amount of smoke was so much that it took a few minutes to dissipate but when it did she saw him, still up, with only some of his armor destroyed to reveal not a single burn on his actual skin, or fur now that she saw it clearly, the humanoid wolf had no sign of being in an explosion otherwise. He just cracked his neck a bit before looking at her with his amber eyes that glowed form the shadow of his mask provided him, "that was quite the attack, but my defense is already at the level beyond even a queen," the smoke fully revealed his form now, his left arm drew her attention. The left arm of a red dragon, the boosted gear, the hand that signified that he was the red dragon emperor, but when did he have the time to boost to the right amount, "let me explain something, my armor hid my hand, I've had it boosting from the moment the games began."

Yubelluna stared wide eyed at what that means, he was just toying with her, he didn't need to dodge her attacks, he could walk up to her and slice her open if he wanted to, "but with that power, you still don't have enough to defeat my lord, and you won't defeat me," she had a nice act.

"I know for a fact that the explosion just now pushed your body well beyond its limit, depleted your magic, and has now left you open with no way of recovery thanks to you using your Phoenix tears earlier," Zen-Aku stated before in flash of dark energy, appeared before her in a low position. "Crescent wave," he stated and at point blank range, he used his crescent blade in firing mode to not only cut her across her chest diagonally, the crescent wave went off at the same time, so she was not only bleeding out, but the force was enough to open it to show her heart to the world.

LORD RISER, ONE QUEEN RETIRED

Zen-Aku nodded as the announcement was made before his armor was made anew with magic, he went in the direction of the school building going through the training field, but when he got there and hung back in the woods, he saw Kiba taking on the two knights, Karlamine and Siris. Koneko took on the rest, the two bishops, Mihae and Ravel, didn't start fighting yet, but the rook, Isabela, and the last two pawns, Ni and Li, were fighting, Koneko was in her full form while taking them on, dodging the twin pawns while the rook waited for her time to strike, but was blocked.

"Not doing too bad considering the number disadvantage," he commented to himself before introducing his dagger flute to the open again, "while they're taking on the knights, rook, and pawns, I suppose that leave me with the bishops," he began playing as he walked out.

The entire battlefield stopped when they heard his music, Kiba and Koneko because they had to smirk to themselves at who was here, Karlamine, Siris, Mihae, Ravel, Isabela, Ni, and Li were surprised that the one that defeated Yubelluna was up for fighting so soon after what they saw. Everyone could see the explosion that the Phenex queen had caused from wherever they were at, Rias was amazed that nobody was eliminated from it, Riser was enraged that not only did it fail to take the mut out, but his own queen got eliminated after it, the others were in awe at it.

As Zen-Aku got closer, the music seemed to get louder to them, so they were able to tell where it was coming from, they turned to see him come from the side instead of where he won against his opponent was, he took a different route in case he ran into some stragglers, now it was unneeded. They stared at his armor that looked brand new and they just knew for a fact this wasn't going to be an easy task, fighting the monster that took out Yubelluna was sure to be worth the match, unfortunately for them, they had more than one to contend with, so their chances dropped. The duke org continued to play as he walked past where Kiba and the two knights had been battling, noting their surprise that he wasn't attacking them, then past where Koneko and the two pawns and rook were fighting, again he noted the surprise on their face at being looked over.

He finally stopped in front of the two bishops, yet continued to play until the song was finished, then brought it down, only for it to be replaced with his crescent blade and looking at the two bishops evenly, "don't point that thing at me, I have no intention of fighting you," Ravel said.

He just raised an eyebrow at her before turning to the other bishop for an explanation, "she is serving in this battle as a bishop, but for the most part, she likes to watch, the lady is Ravel Phenex, one of the Phenex household devils and also lord Riser's sister as well," Mihae informed.

Zen-Aku said nothing as he lowered his blade for a moment, then he turned around and began walking away, heading towards the area the two knights were fighting with Kiba, "Kiba, use sword birth at full power, now," he ordered and the knight dared not disobey, so he used it at his best. The blue wave from it headed in his direction before he slammed the fist that held the boosted gear into the ground, and the gear called out, "transfer," before increasing the size of the swords production radius, so the entire field had swords shoot through the ground and all but one fell. For the other team at least, Zen-Aku had enough faith in his allies that he knew they would either dodge or get away from the attack, and he was right when Koneko was able to jump out of the way of all the swords while using them as springboards, Kiba just never let his own swords hit him.

TWO OF LORD RISER'S PAWNS, TWO OF HIS KNIGHTS, ONE OF HIS ROOKS, AND ONE OF HIS BISHOPS RETIRED

Now Ravel was absolutely terrified of what just happened, this pawn of Rias Gremory was more powerful than Riser Phenex's queen without even promoting himself, and then with one move to he completely obliterated all of their forces leaving just her and her brother to fight them alone. But there was one thing this big guy was missing, "fine, you may have me and my brother outnumbered, but me and my brother are immortal Phenex's, you can't do anything to us," Ravel stated as she kept herself high in the air with a smirk on her face, this'll be quite fun indeed.

"Yes, you are immortal, but you are not resistant to pain when given in large intervals," the duke org stated as he pointed over to the new school building, Ravel turned her head and saw a shocking sight, instead of Rias being there, it was her queen, and she was winning against Riser. "Rias would have been a bad match against him regardless, her magic style is based off of obliteration, Akeno's was built for a more targeted spectrum, meaning that with her lightning magic she can target your brother's nervous system and cause him overbearing pain."

Ravel couldn't believe it, her brother was being beaten by his fiancé's queen, of course she was also taking some damage, but she was holding her own and dealing him some damage as well, damage that stuck with her lightning crackling around him making sure it stayed there hurting him. Then it just got worse for them, because Rias decided to show up with the bishop, meaning that while Rias was protecting them, Asia could heal the queen, then the queen could go back on the offensive while Rias provided covering fire, then Asia would heal when it was needed.

"We've just about won this game, all that's left is for your brother to quit and this entire mess will be behind us," Zen-Aku stated as he began walking towards her, she didn't even notice that in her shock she floated down to the ground in her own despair like state, they were going to lose.

Ravel saw him coming and stepped back in anticipation at what might be coming, but then again, there was also a chance for something else, he looked intimidating, but he also gave off an old warrior vibe, so she tried her luck, "you won't hurt me, an honorable warrior wouldn't do that."

He stopped just before her as she gained defiance in her eyes at him, he knew he presented himself as an honorable warrior, but he knew he wasn't, "I never said I was an honorable warrior, I'm just a warrior, and as of the moment, so are you for participating in this rating game." With one quick right cross, Zen-Aku struck her jaw and she gained wide eyes from the instant pain that she was struck with, her jaw throbbing from the way and force he used in his strike, then without warning backhanded her with the same right hand, this time blood formed in her mouth.

"Blunt force trauma," Kiba stated before Zen-Aku hit an uppercut on the girl and while she was in the air delivered an ax kick sending her to the ground, "stab wounds and destruction of a limb has less impact on the nerve endings, they sever them or they're destroyed when it happens."

"Yet blunt force is different," Koneko continued absentmindedly, remembering how he explained it during their training, "blunt force delivers a pain without damaging nerve endings like the other two, meaning that to beat a Phenex, you need to make them feel an abnormal amount of pain."

Zen-Aku kicked the little girl in the ribs, hard, and it made her go crashing back about twelve yards away from them, Ravel struggled to get up, she had to warn her brother, warn him not to fight these people who have analyzed their weaknesses in such a way, and used them brutally. She tried to get up faster when she saw him approach her slowly, almost as if stalking her, she had to get away, she felt shame at realizing that, she was supposed to be an immortal Phoenix, yet she had to flee because he was using weaknesses she didn't know that she had to begin with. At least she made it to her feet, so she whipped out her fire wings and began to lift into the air and fly to her brother for safety, then a shadow appeared before her and brought down its heal on her head, sending her crashing to the ground and on the verge of passing out from the beating. Ravel felt herself being lifted and briefly wondered what it was that the pawn, no, what the monster was doing before she felt herself soaring into the air, almost registering what was happening, but by the time she realized it, she already landed where the beast threw her to.

Riser was surprised, he was having such a hard time dealing with Gremory's queen, then Rias herself showed up, along with her bishop that possessed Twilight Healing, so when he fired a nice fire blast, Rias blocked it with a magic shield while the bishop healed the queen for another round. This wasn't looking good for him, for some reason his limbs weren't functioning like they should be, they felt slower and each time he moved he felt pain coursing through him, yet he was able to push past and still attack the queen, that was until Rias showed up and aided her queen. She wasn't even supposed to have sent her queen, he predicted that Yubelluna would have to face her queen and win against her, might have to use her tears, but would still win, not be taken out by that mut of a pawn that Rias has, and Rias was supposed to be frustrated enough to come here.

After fending off another lightning strike, but barely, something crashed on the roof between the two groups, after a quick count in his head, it was likely one of Rias's people, seeing as how his sister was all that was left with his side, and there was no way she'd lose, "brother." That was a mangled cry coming from the direction of what it was that crashed into the roof, kicking up dust between them, but that cry he knew anywhere, it came from his sister, and after the dust cleared, that was what it was, his sister was seen with bruises all over her form, unforgivable.

"Who would dare to attack Riser's sister in such a way," Riser demanded with enough rage in his voice to scare most that crossed his path, but the one who did this was not like most, he began hearing a tune as he waited for someone to answer his earlier question, big mistake for them. He turned in the direction the music was coming from and saw the one playing, it was the low-born devil mut that Rias took in as her pawn, he was coming on the lower roof perpendicular to the one they were on, he looked just like he did earlier with no scratches on him at all, it enraged him. He flew down to the roof and glared hatefully at the one who dared to challenge him, dared to harm his sister in such a way, dared to besmirch the good name of Phenex with thinking he's proven that they're not immortal, he had to pay, "it is time to finally lay to rest this low-born trash."

Riser launched himself for Zen-Aku as the duke org calmly stopped playing, when the Phenex was almost upon the duke org, he sidestepped the knee that was being aimed for him slammed his fist into Riser's face nose first, this effectively broke it with what the duke org used to punch with. Before he began playing his dagger flute, he slipped on what was in the pouch that he had been carrying with him the whole game, now it was time to put his theory to the test, and it worked because he could see the steam and burn marks on the devil's face from the punch he was given. Zen-Aku sent a left cross to follow up the right punch to his nose, this though was aimed for his jaw joint and helped with the blunt force aided with the special items in harming the high-class devil even more, effectively almost breaking Riser's jaw in the process of the classic fist pounding.

The force from those two punches caused Riser to spin three hundred sixty degrees while going backwards and holding his face from the burning that this fight was giving him, he stopped and gripped his face in pain as he began screaming, "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

Zen-Aku held up his hands and showed him what they were, but with the steam rising from his face he might not be able to tell, "they're gloves, gloves with the holy cross edged into each knuckle with a soaking of holy water for a nice coating, they're covering my usual gauntlets, so DEVIL, ready?"

With a flash of his speed he was before Riser with a right uppercut aimed for his opponent's jaw, then a gut shot for the left fist before a spinning kick was thrown in that sent him back and skidding on his back, leaving him gasping for air from all of the hits using a holy cross on him. Zen-Aku now stood over Riser with his fist drawn back, and with a resounding wave of the air, slammed it into the face of his opponent, then came another with his left hand, then another with his right again, he repeated this until Riser became nothing but a twitching mess on the roof. The duke org stood up fully and looked down at the immortal bird twitching as if he was nothing more than a fly, then he looked up and saw Ravel slowly limping towards him, the others not bothering to stop her, she was already beaten, just like her brother was already beaten.

"We will win this," Ravel exclaimed as she shot fire at him, but it was small so he just moved his head out of the way, then came another shot that was easily dodged, "we will always win, we are the mighty Phenex's, we are superior to some low-born reincarnated bottom feeding devil scum." Another shot and it was ducked under, Zen-Aku didn't like what she was saying, say what you will about him, but he knows full well that he was never low-born, nor bottom feeding, he was a proud duke org and the mightiest of his race, able to take on master org at full power no problem. So he began walking forward again, this time when she fired he leaned to the right to dodge, then leaned to the left with the next blast, until he was standing directly in front of her, and he could see that she was scared of him, but she had her own pride when it came to her family.

Zen-Aku though sensed something and looked back over his shoulder to see Riser beginning to stand up, he didn't look so good, in fact he looked pissed off at being put to shame as much as he has, that was when Ravel thought she'd try a sneak attack, but was taken out with a backhand. Riser charged for him and charged up a sphere of fire to blast the duke org with, but the duke org was faster and used his right fist to knock Riser down, before grabbing his neck and dragging him across the roof making sure he dug in and made a path all the way to the rising statue design.

Riser coughed up blood before speaking, "you insolent fool, what right do you have to interfere with this important engagement, it's for the future of all devils, why are you even getting involved with something clearly needing to be handled by your betters," he roared as he tried to stand up.

Only to be knocked back down with a punch from Zen-Aku, "despite what you might think, there is a reason I call myself a duke org, because that is what I am, a duke, what are you, a marquis, not even that seeing as how you're third in line, you're just a high-born, no-talent king in this." The duke org grabbed Riser by the throat and hoisted him up and over his head and slammed him into the already damaged roof, "think about that, the money you have, the fortune you possess, what makes you think that your family doesn't just buy your wins, letting you get an ego boost."

"Get away from him," Ravel exclaimed as she flew over to where they were with her flames, "please, stop this, you already have us beat, please don't hurt my big brother anymore," she got between them and tried to protect her downed brother by acting as a shield against the beast.

"No," Riser said as he tried to stand up, his movements were slower, and his limbs were in such pain like never before, "I will not give up, this marriage is too important to our race, we need to keep furthering our lines, making them better than us, so that we'll never lose another war." He was now crouching down and barely able to move, but he was still going to, "no matter what the history books say, we lost that war, we lost because of the shear amount of our numbers, so we must make stronger next generation fighters, and we will make them, no matter what."

Zen-Aku stood there for a few moments, thinking on what was just said, then in a flash brought his right hand to his mask before launching it forward, with a nice boost from his sacred gear, dark purple lightning soured through the sky and struck both Riser and Ravel with great force. Their bodies convulsed and writhed in agony as the lightning coursed through their veins, eyes wide as they screamed from the power coursing through them, then it stopped and they were still twitching, before they both fell backwards and at an angle to take a tumble off the slanted roof.

LORD RISER'S BISHOP RETIRED

LORD RISER HAS BEEN DEFEATED, WINNER IS LADY RIAS GREMORY

* * *

A/N: The voting was really close between two, Venelana and Serafall, both reaching to the teens in voting, after everything counted up, both reviews and PMs, the final tally has VENELANA AS THE WINNER. Now Serafall did do good in the voting, so I will be giving her a consolation prize later on when she's introduced, so don't worry too much about that. How do you like what I did to Riser, I think he got what was coming to him a bit, who else?


	5. New Emotions And The Holy Swords

Demon Duke Org

Chapter 5

New Emotions And The Holy Swords

Zen-Aku was standing guard by a door in his human looking form, but with a nice suit on to make sure he looked the part he was being asked to play, that of a protector protecting a mob boss in Tokyo from those outside the VIP room that had been searched by himself personally beforehand. Those that he were meeting with were also searched upon entry by him personally as well, he got the request for his services through a recommendation from Anatoli and he was not going to disappoint, and from the pleased looks his current employer was having, he was impressing him. How was he able to stand guard for more than four hours at a time though, he could only stay in his human form for two hours at least, two and a half at most, of course that was before that training trip with the peerage, he did his own training and learned to stay in his human form longer.

It had been a few weeks since he beet Riser in that rating game, they have yet to hear word from either Gremory or Phenex clans in regards to the loss the groom-to-be suffered, but the ball was expected to drop any day now, but they still needed to work so here he was in Tokyo guarding. Though there wasn't a complete blackout of information, it turns out that Rias's mom had a huge enough fight with her husband the next day that she left and stormed out of the mansion by herself and hasn't come home to him since, and didn't go to her original clan home either. Sirzechs was both impressed by him and appalled at the same time, impressed by his cunning and ingenuity at defeated Riser, appalled at turning his little sister away from him and making her mad at him, though what made her madder is when told that her brother didn't think she'd win. There was also Riser and Ravel themselves, last he heard they were terrified of anything that would remind them of him, dogs, wolves, lightning, thunder, gloves, darkness, or anything black would set off a panic attack reaction, it took a while to calm them down when one started. So they had Rias's mom leaving home, Rias hating Sirzechs and in return he hated the duke org thinking he was the cause, and two devils that got regular panic attacks anytime it stormed, there was a howl, they saw gloves, or anything close to the shade of black. Zen-Aku himself didn't think much of this information, but Rias and the rest of the peerage was worried because the retaliation would be swift, would be hard, and, if they would go that far, would be a long lasting reminder to not mess with them, so they were worried about Phenex.

Zen-Aku was brought out of his thoughts when there was a knock on the door signifying the end to the meeting taking place at the moment, it had been going on for four hours, starting at six and ending at ten, as the guests exited the room, so did the 'host' for tonight's meeting as well. An older man, he was balding with a long white beard and clothed in red and gold robes, walking with an old fashioned Japanese sandals on his feet while using a cane to walk with, "this is going to be a long week if that is going to be every meeting," his age showed in his voice, "any problems?"

"There was one incident where someone tried to get in on the meeting, using the last minute schedule change excuse, and then when I wouldn't move tried to use the threatening to tell the boss, but when he finally left I signaled for your number two to collect him at the door," he informed.

The old man sighed, "very good of you to not move from your spot, when that Anatoli told me you were good I didn't think he meant as a guard as well, but you just proved me wrong," he let out a boisterous laugh at his own little inside joke, "are you ready to keep it up for another six days?"

"I am," Zen-Aku stated sounding as emotionless as always, though there was one ounce of annoyance in it, various women tried their best to hit on him and try to get him to dance, several were your standard busty drunk women while others were clearly prostitutes, he denied them all.

"You need to lighten up my friend, I tell you what, this is my final serious order of the night, so listen up," the man said in the most serious of voices he used, Zen-Aku remembered him using it at times during the meeting, "you are to go to the bar and have at least three shots before leaving." Zen-Aku looked at him with a blank stare, "you need to lighten up, you have plenty of youth left in you so you need to have a good time, who knows, you might even find a woman to share that good time with," the old man left with another laugh as his number two walked him out.

The duke org in human skin wasn't going to do it, if it was a suggestion instead of an order, he was being paid for the whole week to guard meetings between that man and some more gangs bosses, so since he was being paid and that was his 'employer', he decided to at least drink. That is why he walked over to the bar, knowing that the man just looked back and smiled pleasantly that his advice was taken, Zen-Aku raised his hand and gestured for the barkeep to come over, he looked plainer than Issei looked, but was at least competent in his craft. "Three shots of your strongest stuff," he ordered and the guy walked off to get his order, while he waited he looked around to survey the room and look at who was there, as he had previously been told, there were officials here that had been paid off, they were actually quite obvious. There were a few off duty cops that were not so obvious, but they were also surveying their surroundings with practiced ease, then you have the people whose craft were a lot less easy to point out, mainly just dancing or drinking the night away with someone they came with or someone random.

That is when Zen-Aku saw her, at first glance she didn't seem like much, just a foreign brunette beauty in a form fitting black, backless, strapless dress that showed off every curve she had, like many others in the club trying to turn heads yet got as much attention as the others all the same. When you looked deeper though, she had less aura than someone of her height and build should have, going even deeper found that she was actually a devil suppressing her energy so it wouldn't be traced, but makes her stand out all the more with how few energy she had.

She saw him glancing her way before turning back to wait for his drinks, and when she saw him something in her own instincts went off, multiple instincts actually, her womanly instincts were telling her to grab him, he was a hot looking stoic, her soon-to-be ex-husband was so emotional. Then there were the less… vocal of her instincts, they were telling her to run away, this guy was dangerous and hung with the wrong crowd, and this was coming from a devil so maybe she should listen to them, but her eyes were drawn to him, so she walked over out of curiosity.

Zen-Aku barely felt her approach her energy was so low, but since he knew what it felt like and knew what she was doing, he knew when to turn and his head slightly and watch as she sat on the empty stool next to him and motioned to the seat, "is this seat taken," he shook his head no. She might have frowned at him if he was anyone else, but his eyes just drew her in, they were a deep amber, almost as if they were glowing bright, and he couldn't stop staring at her eyes either, they were a nice violet color, "Venelana Bael, nice to meet you," stuck out her hand as she sat.

He shook it saying his name, "Rouki Argento," his voice was deep and almost sounded like he was growling at the same time, it actually melted her ears at how smooth it sounded, despite how much primal power that it held, seriously, was there anything about this guy that was a turn off.

Three shots were placed in front of him and he just stared at them and noted the color, or lack there-of, it was clear but you could feel the obvious potency of the drink, but since he'd never tried it before he could only go by looks and smell, which was nice and gentle, but is it though? Glancing over at the woman that was just sitting there with a smile on her face watching him as he had three drinks in front of him, he silently ran through facts in his head, he had a beautiful woman sitting next to him, three shots of an unknown liquid placed in front of him. Several different level agents to his 'employer' still here that might report him for not taking that order seriously, and worst of all Venelana was looking at him expectantly to drink the liquid, so he decided to get it over with and just down the shots, all three in a row.

Venelana was impressed with Rouki, she noticed the barkeeper pouring the shots in, it was a very strong drink called Spirytus Rektyfikowany, and the man just downed three shots in a row, and by the time he put down the third, he looked fine, as if nothing was wrong, even his eyes were fine. He set back a bit and cracked his neck, that was actually good, but he knew he shouldn't have any more, there were certain things that even though they made you feel good, he knew he shouldn't actually drink too much as his inhabitations could be lowered to dangerous levels.

"I take it you don't drink too much," Venelana guessed from his side with a smile, he turned and shook his head no, she giggled at him not saying much of anything, "you don't talk much, how am I supposed to flirt with you if you just sit there and don't talk to me," her face in a cute pout.

Zen-Aku sighed before turning to her fully as she had her body twisted to look at him, "sorry, I've been a loner most of my life so I'm unsure of how this 'flirting' is supposed to go," now that he moved a bit those shots were starting to take a small effect on him, very small effect, but still.

"Oh, well now you have me intrigued," she said with a coy smile now, this man just keeps getting more and more interesting, "what does the 'loner' do for a living, that's usually the first thing we start off with, asking what the other one does and go from there with innuendos and pickup lines."

"I work for a temp agency of sorts, mainly just odd jobs and dealings of various things, ranging from delivering packages to bodyguards, just got off of a shift a few minutes ago actually," he said with a smirk himself, some things the boy learned came in handy, act like you don't know for one.

"A temp agency, there are so many innuendos I could make about that, especially the package delivery part," now Venelana was just teasing him, a temp agency left her knowing exactly the right things to say, but she still needed to know more about him, "is that all that you'll share?"

Zen-Aku smirked to himself despite the situation he was in, he never liked doing these things, but that drink was taking a deeper hold on him, "I'm also a skilled fighter," he informed and watched as she shot him another interested look, "not a short match fighter either, I can go the distance."

She shot him the most startled look she could muster before breaking out into a fit of giggled at his obvious innuendo, it seems like he was really trying now, despite not knowing how to actually do it, "oh that's a good one, so you can do random jobs as well as fight, how's your cooking?"

"Not bad actually, though I'm used to cooking for myself only, so you might have different tastes than me," his eyes took on a mysterious look to her, it was like he was starting to become a bit more welcome to the flirting, he soon raised his hand for four more shots of his drink, "2 for each."

"Well thank you, and was that actually an invitation to come back to your place to have dinner, so forward and we just met," her teasing got a nice reaction form him in the way of a nice smirk, it wasn't a smug smirk but a smirk that held confidence with a bit of something she couldn't place.

"I think it's time you answered some questions as well, don't you think," his question to her gave her a lot more hope, about how this night would end, and when the shots came and he took his two and she accepted her two, they both downed them and she felt it gently going down.

"Very well, truth be told I'm here on a vacation of sorts, taking some time off to decide what it is I wish to do now that some… weights have been lifted from me," Venelana's choice in words barely went noticed by the duke org, but were noticed all the same, "so you could say I'm between jobs."

Zen-Aku nodded to her response before stating, "so what are your hobbies, someone who looks as stunning as you has to have some kind of hobby equally as interesting," now he's decided to quit drinking, he's starting to really let his tongue get loose, too loose for his liking.

"You'd be surprised at how little that's true," she said with a light laugh, at least she was getting him talking now, and that voice in the back of her head telling her to stay away is gone, "but no hobbies sadly to say, though," she moved in a bit closer, "I might just pick up some soon."

"That sounds like a good idea, maybe I'll pick one up a little bit related to yours," that is when he could sense an incoming devil call was coming, he blocked it off so he could say goodbye, "I'm sorry but I'm getting a call," he stood up from his seat and watched as she pouted a bit. "Though, I've been hired for a week long job in town at this very bar," her eyes gained more hope than ever thanks to that information, "perhaps when my shifts end we could continue these chats of ours, at least get to know one another," he had no idea why but he grabbed her hand and kissed it.

"Now that actually sounds delightful, every night after your shift ends, I'll be here waiting, and who knows," she got up and pushed her curvy form against his body bit, "maybe by the end you'll be a bit looser than now," she kissed his cheek and walked away with a swing to her hips.

Zen-Aku was now fully considering himself drunk because he did something he would never normally do, he looked down at her rear as she walked away, he could feel the burning to claim her as his starting to rise, but he knew not of where it came from, orgs don't have those feelings. His attention drew back to the incoming call as he put the phone to his ear, "what is it Rias, I'm not due to check in till tomorrow," he was ordered to check in every other day, now every day, this was just to let them know that he's safe and nothing was going wrong, for them either.

"I know, I was just calling out of boredom and thought of just doing a preliminary check in, thought I'd ask how the first day out of town went and if you spotted any more potential clients," Rias stated and he could actually see her lean back in her desk chair at she said that.

"Fine, but next time find something else to do, I was actually in the middle of something that I was able to save for tomorrow night, a devil is in town, powerful one too, but I don't think it's aware that I know because I was actually able to suppress my energy correctly from detection. For now though I'm trying to find out why it's here so I can deal with it better in the future, maybe sabotage it if what it's about to do is harmful for future contracts, which at the moment I have a few potentials, nothing concrete yet," Zen-Aku informed as he set at the bar again.

"Very well, keep me posted and let me know the moment that you find out why it's there, or after you've dealt with it by acting on your own judgment, remember that we're only a phone call away," Rias said before hanging up the phone and leaving him free to go to his hotel to sleep.

* * *

seven days later

It had now been seven days, and he could honestly say that he's never had as much fun as he had these last few days, he's never felt joy or anything that he's felt in these last few days, he's felt bloodlust from battle, annoyance, pain, sadness, anger, hatred, and a need for revenge. Yet he has never felt joy, happiness, a need to see a smile, a healing laugh, a calming voice, or to know what lust might feel like, that is until he met Venelana, she has made him feel all of that, and it was starting to worry him because these were new feelings, new emotions.

For the past few days it always started off with him waking up and doing a very light workout in his hotel room, some push-ups, sit-ups, flutter-kicks, the light workouts that anyone could do, then he would order room service and just wait until it was time for his time to go to work. When he got there he repeated the same pattern as the first day, he would guard the door letting only those that were on the list in, checking them for weapons or listening devices, and then standing there, not moving for anything until it was time for them to leave the room. His boss would tell him what a good job he was doing, some times saying that he does a far better job than the other people he's hired and then he would walk away, though that was after his second night where he again ordered him to the bar to take a few shots, not that he needed it.

It was after his shift that things got so much better for him, when he got to the bar he always ordered four shots of the same drink, than waited until she came, walked up behind him and he just looked back at the right time to always catch a glimpse of her before she set down. Her dresses were black on the first day, dark blue on the second day, red on the third, green on the fourth, white on the fifth, yellow on the sixth, and on the final day she wore the same black dress as on the first day, said it was something to remember her by the end of the night. They talked for a while, each shot lowering their inhibitions to the point where they began to get a lot more comfortable with one another, at one point they were leaned up against one another, well she was actually leaned up against him, his arm touching the side of her breasts. Always set on his right side and one always ended up having to leave before the other one, most often it being Zen-Aku before he got too out of it from over drinking, but he was fine with it because she was, she respected the fact that he knew his limit and knew not to exceed it.

During their conversations, many things were brought up, it turned out that she was actually a descent fighter herself, of course he already knew that from sensing her power, but she got comfortable enough to actually tell him herself, she gave him a great smile after that. It got a little worrisome when, for some strange reason, he decided to reveal that he knew she was a devil, she looked down a bit after that but perked right back up when he also said that she's one of the nicer of their kind, and she's shown great competence other fail to possess. Venelana couldn't help but laugh at that, his way of talking seems so old at times that it reminded her of long ago in the human world, and she understood why now when he revealed that he's also a devil, but neither bothered to ask any more questions beyond that topic. The furthest with that topic they went was her revealing that she was staying with some friends she made in the human world during her vacation, met them long ago and so they let her stay with them, they were a human race that lived for hundreds of years, but that was as far as that went. If they had they'd reveal who their masters were, or if they were a stray, or if they were on the run from something, so they both agreed not to get into all that and just talked normally, though they were still flirting with each other, teasing a little bit, and by the sixth day, handsy. Their feelings of repressed tension from the first day all the way to the sixth was building up, they didn't do anything beyond one putting their hands on the other's thigh, one *Venelana* did put their hand close to the other's crotch after quite a few shots, but Zen-Aku didn't let it escalate.

Then it was the night of the seventh day and in the next morning he was heading out, she was in her black dress that hugged her curves and he was in his suit and tie, though the tie was loose and the jacket hung off the back of his chair, this was their last night and so they were handsy. Too handsy to be honest, they had gotten to know each other so well by the end of this trip that there was a bit of desperation from both of them, desperate not to let the other one go, so they were both drinking excessively, both getting handsy, drawing them up each other's bodies. Finally Venelana looked up at him with sad eyes, because she knew this was usually the part of the night where he left, he couldn't really bare to see those eyes, and with every single emotion that he was feeling from her he decided to make a move, one he's never made in his long years.

Zen-Aku lunged forward a bit and claimed her mouth with his own, at first she was shocked before she kissed him back, their lips soft and supple against the other's as they pressed harder until eventually needing to come up for air, they looked into each other's eyes with want. The duke org paid his bar tab he'd racked up that week and they both left the club, they didn't make it out the door before they kissed again, this time feeling each other up as they did so, that is when the duke org picked her up and ran for his hotel, occasionally pecking her lips as he went. What went on from there was hot, it was loud, and by the time they were done, left them both very satisfied with what went on, they fell asleep in each other's arms and slept blissfully, for him the first time in years, and for her the first time since she'd didn't know when.

They both woke up with the sun and ate room service, he decided to go back by train so they walked together, arms hooked and blissful smiles on before they turned sad at having to leave one another, but they did promise to keep in touch, exchanging cellphone numbers to do so. Venelana never thought to look at where he was going, or who paid for the hotel room, she had never felt that way before, her marriage with Zeoticus was more political than love based, but she had grown to learn to love him, yet they grew separately from one another, there was no love. With Rouki though, she never let him tell her his real name, she felt more alive than she ever did, they might not have known each other long but there was something there, a chemical reaction that you couldn't predict, she was open with her feelings and he was closed off from his. Zen-Aku realized this as well, and found it to be a very interesting pairing, she wasn't childish with her emotions, wasn't overly emotional and was able to think rationally, he was stoic for a reason, the mask he wore was not just his wolf mask but one to keep his emotions in check.

They both separated from a long kiss goodbye when they heard his train was boarding, "I guess this is it Rouki," she chewed at her bottom lip and tried her best not to sound broken up inside, they had promised to stay in contact, but she still wanted to see him more than that, way more.

Zen-Aku didn't say anything and just leaned in to give her one more kiss before they separated one last time, this time they gave each other sad smiles before he walked off and to his train, they agreed not to reach the train directly, plausible deniability in case people found out. This was one of the best weeks he's ever had, he's found a new emotion, one that he's never had before, he didn't think it was love quite yet, but it was an extreme like, something about that woman stirred it within him, this new emotion that he'd never felt of before, and knew not what to call it.

Venelana would miss him dearly, this was an experience that she'd never had before, and she's had quite the experiences in her long life, and to be honest she'd prefer to stay by his side and go with him, but she had her own things to do now, starting with finally teleporting some papers. They were divorce papers, legally she was within her right to do such a thing, the original contract that was set between their two families was fulfilled, stating that they were to have at least two children before one could leave the other one, they stayed together this long for the children. That was just not enough by this point though, Sirzechs was Lucifer now, the king of all devils and he was grown with his own wife and child now, and Rias was in her last year of high school, she's already fulfilled the contract requirements and has stuck with him as long as she could. So it was time to send the papers and finally put an end to a loveless marriage that was not going anywhere emotionally or physically, that hadn't been happening for a long time now, and after a little time to herself, she'll track down Rouki again and possibly begin a relationship with him.

* * *

Hours later

It took some time before Zen-Aku made it back to Kuoh, and as soon as he got off of his train, he casually walked to where there were no cameras and where nobody would see him before changing back to his duke org form before shadow phasing to the clubroom to report in. He was really thankful for his mask, because if he wasn't he's sure that he'd seem like he was grinning from ear to ear, he was able to get control of his voice to not sound happy on the train, checked his mannerisms, and everything checked out the exact same as always, good.

What he walked in on though was Rias sitting on the couch closest to the window, Akeno, Kiba, Koneko, and Asia standing behind her, and across the table on the other couch was a blue haired girl and a chestnut brown haired girl, both held holy auras and both clad in white cloaks. "Ah, Zen-Aku, good of you to finally show up," Rias said politely to her pawn when he stepped into the room and saw what was going on, then she looked to the two girls, "this is my pawn, Zen-Aku, he's the one that acquired the holy sword that was sent back to the Vatican."

The blue haired girl only nodded at the information as the duke org went and stood next to Asia, "thank you for agreeing to speak with us today, my name is Xenovia," the blue haired girl spoke up first with a professional air about her, though she looked to her partner in pity when she spoke.

"My name is Irina Shidou," the chestnut brown haired girl introduced in a sad tone as if she had been depressed from something she heard, and that is when something in his mind clicked, that name sounded familiar, and now he knew why, this was a childhood friend of Issei's, crap.

"It's fascinating to me why followers of God would want to meet with a devil," Rias commented with a smile as everyone remained silent and behind her, oh she had no idea how fascinating it is, or sad depending on how one looked at it, but the duke org's mask was on, that's all he cared for.

"It does seem random, here's the thing, there are six swords we can account for, three are still with the church, however, we happen to know that the other three were stolen by fallen angels," Irina informed them, much to everyone else's shock, Zen-Aku just shrugged internally.

Xenovia spoke up again and motioned to her wrapped sword, "these are from the ones we have left, they're made from Excalibur, this sword is mine, it's called the sword of destruction," the way she introduced it so casually screams at her own self-confidence with the weapon.

"Then there is the one that I have here," Irina began and showing her armband, "it's known as the holy sword of mimicry, it's also an Excalibur mimic," the duke org briefly wondered what an armband could do before he remembered that it could be a cover for a sword of some kind.

"So, what is it you would like for us to do for you today," Rias asked while still having a smile on her face and trying to be professional as well, though they both doubted that the smile was real for sure, they both had to act as professionals as well, though it was easier for the bluenette.

"Stay completely out of it, this is between us and the fallen angels, let's keep it simple, shall we, we don't want the devils in this town to intervene," Xenovia told her, so this was just to make a statement, a statement telling them not to get involved with their business, too bad.

"That sounds like an accusation, are you afraid that we will side with the fallen angels and keep you from obtaining the holy swords," Rias said ominously, though she tried to be polite about it as well, though Zen-Aku had no idea where the accusation part came from, he blamed her inexperience.

"We know for devils, a holy sword is a detestable thing, wouldn't it make more sense for you to support the fallen angels," Xenovia retorted just as ominously, "and if that is true, we would have no choice but to completely annihilate you, even though you are the great devil's sister."

"If you already have me figured out, then let me share something with you: there is no way I would ever even think of joining the fallen angels, I would never do anything to besmirch the name of the house of Gremory or my dear brother" Rias commented with a prideful smile.

Now the bluenette smiled and said, "it's enough for me just to hear you say that, I was only relaying the thoughts of headquarters, I honestly didn't think the little sister of Lucifer would be that stupid," she closed her eyes as if she was praising herself for thinking correctly.

"Good to know, then I also hope you understand that I will not provide aid to your side either," the Gremory heiress stated, and that is where Zen-Aku got a bad feeling, they were going to be helping these two at some point, weren't they, great, just when he got back from heaven.

"Of course, I trust that we will prevail if you promise not to intervene in anything we do in this town," Xenovia said, this was like foreshadowing in a novel by these people, and the only saving grace was that nobody could see his twitching eyebrow from focusing on each other.

"You have my word on that," Rias promised gracefully, she may or may not have meant that, and depending on how their exit goes it may just be that she meant it, but if they do something to make her mad enough, there will be interference from them, whether she knows it or not.

"We won't take up any more of your time then, we'll let ourselves out," she said as she got up to leave, and as she was walking out, she got a glimpse of Asia from the corner of her eye, and so she decided to comment on it, did so in the dumbest and antagonizing way that she could. "I was wondering if visiting these devils would lead us to you, Asia Argento, but I guess it does make sense that I would run into a witch in a place like this," and that is where they just set off their execution, it became so much worse when Irina decided to speak up in a surprised voice.

"Oh my goodness you're the former saint who became a witch, I heard that you were banished because you had the power to heal fallen angels and devils, and that one time you actually used it, you must be pretty strong, but I didn't know that you'd actually become a devil yourself."

Asia grabbed her skirt, clearly upset, and mumbled out, "well I'm, I guess so," the mumble was barely audible to them, but they still heard it, and so did her adopted father, which was currently scowling at them from behind his mask, if they bring her to tears, they are dead on sight.

"So, you went from being a saint to being a devil, that is as far as one can fall," Xenovia commented again, "do you still believe in our God Asia," Xenovia asked the ex-nun, it was clear that she held her faith in high esteem, but some actions can be taken too far at times.

"Don't be silly, she's like a devil and stuff, she's over us," Irina guessed, wrongly so, because Zen-Aku knew some details about her life that these two morons from the church would never dream of, he's had to hear it through the walls and doors of their house at night.

"No, that doesn't always mean what you think it does, and there are those whose hearts continue to remain pious in the midst of their own selfish betrayal, she seems like she might be one of them," the bluenette thought out loud, they're digging themselves deeper in the hole now.

With tears in her eyes, Asia squeaks out, "yes, I've never been able to let go, and I've believed in God this whole time," Zen-Aku puts his hand on her shoulder to calm her down, for some reason he was always able to calm her by this simple action, must be adapting to role of father.

"Then you should allow us to execute you at this instant, and though you have sinned in the worst way possible, if you sacrifice your soul to him, he will forgive you, let yourself be convicted by my hand, God will work through me to save you," Xenovia said, that is her final mistake to Asia.

Zen-Aku got between them and raised his own energy, she could feel it and they felt shivers run up their spines, "the second you try and I'll kill you myself," his voice was like venom and she had to recoil from the potency he was letting seep into it, she actually gulped before speaking.

"I wasn't shaming her senselessly, as one of God's servants, I feel it is my duty to rescue her soul," she pointed out forwardly, this beast was intense, but her will to serve her god will not ever be shaken, rescuing her soul would be a great achievement for the church, and she knew it.

"You failed at your duty a long time ago then, as did the rest of the church," Zen-Aku announced and now Xenovia glared while Irina was shocked, "the church was supposed to be the better of the three factions, yet out of all the factions the one in the right in this instance was the devils. Just because she was part of the church faction doesn't mean other factions don't deserve to be healed as well, she has nothing but a caring heart and when she used her gifts with her caring heart she was throne out, she wasn't thinking of religion, only about doing what was right."

"You may not believe this being a newborn devil, but what was right was not to heal that devil, healing that devil without a thought to her religion was the wrong choice to begin with, she was a saint, so that is all she should have thought about," Xenovia stated as if it was fact, it wasn't.

"Let me tell you what you did wrong then, and actually listen to the words," he stated looking down on her, "you chose to make her your saint, she never asked for it and all she wanted was friends, so she came to where she could make them and where we don't abuse her power. You talk about her faith in God as if it was easy to dismiss, but you have not seen what I have, every night she prays, it takes her some time and causes her immense pain, and by the time she gets through it she faints from the pain, but she still prays because she sees the truth. The bible has never once said that only humans can worship him, it's the same with fallen angels, each one should be able to pray should they choose, her being a devil now just means she has a longer life-span, the way she is now is no different to how she was as a human."

Xenovia glared at the duke org throughout his speech, and though it pained her to admit it, he had a point, but from her teachings it said that devils are evil being so Asia must be one as well, "and who exactly are you to Asia Argento," Xenovia asked the beast looking into his eyes.

"I'm her father, Zen-Aku the duke org, I've lived for many millennia and have gained much knowledge in that time, one such knowledge is that humans, devils, fallen angels, and angels are all the same, some with longer life spans but all have the same thing, free will to act as they will."

"Comparing angels to something like a devil, that is where I will not stand you," Xenovia stated as she brought her sword between them, "that is very big talk for a devil such as yourself, comparing your race to that of an angel is something we will not let stand, ever," Irina was ready too.

"This is perfect," the voice of Kiba came through and everyone turned to him, standing and glaring at the two from the church, "I'm your superior, nice to meet you," he walked outside with both Xenovia and Irina following, after that being the rest of the peerage as Zen-Aku went via window.

Once they were outside Xenovia said, "alright, let's begin," before her and Irina shed their cloaks to reveal black body suits, they had no legs or arms to them, but made up for it with long gloves and long boots, they both wore a cross around their necks and both looked determined. Irina unveiled her holy sword, Excalibur mimic that took the form of a katana, the bandages on Xenovia's sword seemed to evaporate in an instant and released her sword as well, similar to an ax with the top of the ax extended to become another double-sided, three-point blade.

Kiba was about to step forward when Zen-Aku stuck out is hand, "your emotional state will have you making too many mistakes in this bout, your rational thinking will be clouded, my emotions are always tempered through millennia of training, you are not to fight in this bout right now."

When Kiba made to protest he was knocked out by the duke org through a chop to the back of the neck, "are you sure this is wise," Xenovia called out when she saw what he did, "taking us on alone is not something I'd recommend," though she herself was fearful, her pride would not falter.

"Yes, your overconfidence in your abilities will lead to your downfall," Zen-Aku was quite plain in his voice, it made them furious that he thinks he knew them so well after meeting them just once, after the duke org threw the downed knight to the other spectators he brought out his sword.

"Hm, do you really think a mere devil sword is a match for the Excalibur of destruction," Xenovia said as she launched herself for the duke org, intent on swiping at his sword to destroy it and hopefully break her will, but wasn't able to because of how he parried her swing, it was masterful. When she swung at his sword, he used the curvature of his blade and the momentum from her own to roll it under her sword and fling it to his right side, all in one split instance that took no longer than an eighth of a second, and it was only after she looked down did she see the cut. It wasn't a deep cut, but it was a single cut along her collarbone that made her lose focus long enough for him to get past her defenses and bring his blade to her throat before sending repeated knees to her stomach before tossing her and making her back hit a tree hard.

"As I said, you're too overconfident in your abilities," Zen-Aku said before turning his attention to Irina who ran up to attack him with an overhead strike instead while she thought his focus was off of her, it didn't pan out since he raised his left forearm and slammed it into her attacking arms. Of course this made her grip on her sword loosen enough for him to then raise his left palm against the pommel of her katana and forced it from her hands, before using that same hand to slam into her gut making her stumble back where he used that chance to high kick her away from him. "Your holy swords do not need to be overcome, just the person that uses them, all I need to do is get past them and attack your bodies for you to be out of commission, I would have thought believers in God would know not to possess the sin of pride," he rested his blade on his shoulder.

Xenovia was rising slowly, the cut on her collarbone was hindering her from the stinging sensation it was giving her, but she was slowly rising, then she felt a blade against the back of her neck, "so I assume that this is where I either surrender to you or we keep going till one of us dies then?" She looked up and saw that he nodded to her question, this very short fight just showed them that he was not only a pushover, but was able to take the both of them on almost effortlessly, just what was it he could also do, "very well, to keep from failing our mission, I accept defeat."

"Wise choice," he said before turning to the incoming katana and caught it by the flat of the blade with one hand, "are you going to accept that I' the better warrior or a I going to have to beat you into the ground first," no matter how hard she tried, Irina couldn't move the sword, so she nodded.

"Good," Rias said with a small smile at the victory her servant had over the followers of the church, "I officially acknowledge the win of Zen-Aku," she said with quite the amount of pride in her voice, "and I'm grateful that you didn't deal the final blows to either of them, thank you." Zen-Aku grunted as he walked away while putting away his crescent blade, Asia ran up to the downed believer in God and started to heal her neck line, "now just out of curiosity, did you find out which fallen angel was guilty of stealing the swords," she asked as Asia finished the healing.

"We know who was behind it, the leader of the Grigoris named Kokabiel," Xenovia informed in a shocked tone as she watched the girl she had called a witch heal her and her partner's wounds, her cut and Irina's various bruises from being hit in the gut so many times, how strong was he?

"That's more akin to a suicide mission with no possibility of success on your own," Zen-Aku voiced as they turned to him, Rias made to make a statement, but he spoke regardless, "you and I both know that Kiba is too obsessed with the holy swords to not go off on his own, but I have a suggestion." They watched as he leaned against a tree as he watched them draw his eyes across all of them, "the likelihood of the success of your mission would go up significantly if you seek aid from us, Kiba would get to destroy a sword, you get to take the rest back and report both success and possible allies."

Xenovia looked at Irina, both having a silent conversation with each other before Xenovia turned her head to look at them, rising fully to look at the duke org, "very well, I do not like to rely on you devils for a problem of this magnitude, but our success is heightened by your assistance."

"Wait one moment," Rias said as she faced her pawn as well, "don't forget that I'm the king here Zen-Aku, and I get where you're coming from, helping the church would put us in their good graces, but the politics of such a thing is far too risky for us to decide it on our own."

"What about Sona, if we get only one pawn of hers involved then she'd have to get in on this too, especially if it's her new favorite pawn, if I get him to enter this, you distract Sona long enough for us to get things started, then we could get past the politics enough, right," he asked back.

Now Rias had to think, there was truth in what he was saying, with two kings involved then they could act as more of a coalition than naïve kids helping out people from the church, already had the makings since Sona was contacted first, "fine, me and Akeno will hold off Sona and Tsubaki."

"Fine, Asia, you go back to the house and wait until after you are needed, this is going to be mild combat first, then more intense combat later on, then you'll be needed for healing," Zen-Aku stated and she along with Akeno and Rias left while the others were left to plan what will happen. The first thing was to plan on who was going where and with who, the church would have gone separately, but Zen-Aku made the argument that it would be easier to stay in touch with the Gremory communication line than on their own cell phones that could be bugged, they agreed. So Xenovia, Kiba, and Irina would go to one side of town while him and Koneko would get Saji and search for clues on the opposite side, and now that the plan has been made they agreed to wait until tomorrow to start so they could all be well rested and Zen-Aku could get Saji.

* * *

A/N: This is a half and half chapter, first half is celebration for Venelana winning the race, this is mainly just a first meeting fluff piece that celebrates Valentine's day, nothing more, so better romance chapter between them will come out soon. The second half is the start of the holy sword fallen angel arc, and I'm here to let you now that I will be making some changes to how the rest of the DxD story is played out, and these changes you won't see coming.


	6. Issues With Warmongers

Demon Duke Org

Chapter 6

Issues With Warmongers

Zen-Aku told Asia to tell Saji to meet him, Kiba, Xenovia, Irina, and Koneko at a café, he did so and now this was happening, "hell no, are you even serious," they all nodded, he stood up and exclaimed, "you're insane," then noticed the attention and set back down, "this is wrong."

"If we're caught without you, we'll more than likely be branded as outlaws and forced to be disowned, but if we're caught with you, this means there is more than one peerage involved giving our chances of getting through it unquestioned," Zen-Aku stated plainly.

"You realize both of our presidents may punish us just for being involved with those holy swords, right," Saji asked and they raised an eyebrow at him, "okay Rias okayed things on your end, but Sona is draconian and loves punishing us," he rose and began to leave, "no way man, sorry."

Yet he wasn't going anywhere because Koneko was pulling him back by the back of his shirt and shoved him back on the seat, "plan B then," the duke org stated as they looked to him, he reached into his pocket and pulled out some photos, "I'll spread these if you won't help us."

They each grabbed a photo and in them were all pictures of Saji with a camera of his own, taking pictures of girls in various lewd settings, ranging from the girl's locker room, the pool, a couple making out, even a few teachers, "I get it, plan B for blackmail then," Kiba commented dryly.

"What gives, I never did any of that stuff, and I know for a fact that that's that one perverted guy's camera, not mine," Saji whisper yelled at him, it was obvious they were fake, so why in the hell was those pictures even in existence, "these are obviously fake, nobody will believe them."

"Not at first glimpse, anger will get to them and then they will seek you out, your reputation will be gone and Sona will have no choice but to fire you to keep her public image, and by the time they realize they are fake, the damage is done," Zen-Aku stated plainly, "do we have a deal?"

Saji could do nothing but nod, he knew all that would happen, so they all stood up and left the café, to start searching for the swords they needed to blend in with their surroundings, and wait till nightfall, so they went to the church to wait out the evening until they were sure it was good. That night was a dark one, so thankfully they were able to hide any bright colors they had with some priest clothing that they had found lying around as they waited to search for the holy swords, "a devil putting on priests cloths," Kiba commented as he finished putting on the clothes.

"Not without kicking and screaming about it," Irina commented in a cheery tone, but her eyes held nothing but sadness, on the way she asked them if they knew anything about a boy named Issei Hyoudou, they denied it and shifted conversation, things turned a bit awkward since then.

"I know nothing will stand in the way of you and your goal," Zen-Aku began to comment, "but keep in mind that you must keep a cool head and think things through, understand," he asked the boy and he nodded, but he still didn't seem all there, so it wasn't meant, great.

"I think we will be more efficient in two groups, let's split up," Xenovia suggested. "we'll take the west side and you can take the east," she said offered and they nodded, it sounded like a descent plan, "before you go Zen-Aku, you should know that the white dragon has awakened," she told him.

The duke org just looked over his shoulder and nodded before they left and now on their way to search for the swords themselves while walking down the street, "you know, we should probably go some place without people around," Kiba said thoughtfully, "maybe that old mansion."

At said mansion, they felt something was off, there was clearly holy swords around, yet before they could go into the mansion their path was blocked by two figures, one a tall woman with a maroon mini skirt and matching blazer, the other a man in a trench coat and matching fedora. What was most shocking however was that they both had holy swords, the woman using a sword with a wide blade and a diamond sized hole in it with spikes on each side of the blades edge, the man wielded a broadsword looking weapon with a thick guard, these were fallen wielding holy swords.

Saji got on guard and summoned his sacred gear, it looked like an iguana on his wrist, Zen-Aku summoned his crescent blade while also bringing out his dagger flute, "Dohnaseek, I think this is the guy who killed Mittelt and Raynare," the one in the maroon outfit commented to her partner.

"I know Kalawarner, I can smell the same smell that Raynare had on her when she came back and reported a mission complete, and when we found Mittelt's body, so care to explain," Dohnaseek said to the one named Kalawarner before demanding answers from those here.

"Easy, I killed them both, Raynare did kill me first after all, and Mittelt was spying on us so I killed the first for revenge and the other as punishment for spying," Zen-Aku growled out before readying they readied their own blades in anger at their comrades being killed by the monster.

Kiba was the first to act though, went charging straight for the man in a flash, only to meet blades with the woman instead, "you're fast, but I think Excalibur Rapidly is more than a match," Kalawarner said before swiping at him, he skidded back before charging at the woman.

"She gets so worked up," Dohnaseek commented as he turned to look at his opponents, as Kalawarner battled with Kiba on the roof of the mansion, thankfully he turned back just in time to block a strike to himself thanks to a crescent blade swiping from the left to right. He just didn't expect for the monster attacking him to spin his blade at the last second and slide around his block to the right and slide right past his defense in the same instant, he was forced to block the blade with his own holy magic sword just to then back up enough. Only to realize that he couldn't get far because of a pain that shot through his system, it came from his waist and when he looked down he saw a knife wound had pierced him, he briefly wondered when before his eyes widened in realization, then stared at the duke org and his bloody dagger. Then came another shock when, before he could activate the Excalibur Transparency, something coiled around his neck and tugged him to the left, but he stood his ground and saw Saji there using his Absorption Line to trap him, Dohnaseek would have cursed before another pain hit him again. This in the same spot where the dagger went in the first time, but with something else, a blunt force from a tiny hand, it was then that he came to another conclusion when he saw a head of white hair, the little Koneko had implanted her fist in his gut while he was distracted with Saji. That is when everything for him started to fade into darkness, he heard a piercing sound and blood stained his torso, there was also a black spike protruding form his chest, then he heard a woman's shriek and it was then he realized that he'd been stabbed in the back, literally.

"Dohnaseek," Kalawarner shrieked when she saw her partner, and secret lover, get stabbed in the back with his neck grabbed by a rope and of some kind and a little girl punching his midsection, all of this leading to his death in such a sudden way that she could do nothing other than watch. That and fend off the knight class that was attacking her right now, but she was able to hold him off with her own speed and superior experience, she was quite old herself so she had plenty of time under her belt, it helped because this knight was fast, but Excalibur Rapidly made her faster. So she quickly got the advantage over the knight when he went for a sword birth barrage when she was distracted with Dohnaseek's death, and used her speed to slash across his chest with the holy sword she has, "you're fast kid, but you need another thousand years to beat me."

"Sword Birth, hugh," a voice called out from the entrance of the mansion, an older man walked out, "a Sacred Gear that can exhibit invincible power based on the user's ability," the man said with an almost kind smile, "but it seems this user isn't up to that task at all," his tone mocking.

"That is why we're here," Xenovia popped up from nowhere and charged for the old man, only to be blocked by the Excalibur Rapidly, "move away from that man, Valper Galilei is charged with betraying his faith, performing unethical experiments, and aiding the theft of holy swords."

"Kalawarner," Valper voiced from behind the fallen, "we're done here, you're outnumbered, and judging by the force they brought, you're also outmatched, time to pull back," she grit her teeth and was about to take something from her person before a sharp pain spread through her back. She had no time to react to it before dust was kicked up around them and then darkness, for Valper though, he saw what happened, a pale moon-like energy shot from the blade of the black figure and shot at her from behind before a dagger was stabbed through her temple.

Zen-Aku had taken out two of the three enemies in almost no time at all, thanks to distractions of course, but it was still quite the feet, and by the look of the man, Valper wasn't too pleased with that fact, "I believe that you have explaining to do Valper, but not to me," he motioned behind him. Kiba walked in front of Valper, sword clenched in anger, "this is a private matter, take it inside," the duke org ordered and Kiba was happy to comply, taking the now screaming man inside.

"Goodness, what have you gotten yourselves into," Rias's voiced called out to them from off to the side, those that are left turned to her while Xenovia and Irina retrieved the Excalibur Rapidly and Transparency, "I'm sure this will be a lively story, I can't wait," Akeno was all smiles beside her.

"Whenever you'd like to start explaining, I'm ready," Sona said from next to her with a dangerously calm voice, standing as if a mother that has just caught her child doing something they know they shouldn't be doing, her queen just had her eyes closed standing next to her.

Before much else could be said, there was a loud commotion coming from the mansion, then came a glowing light, then after that came the loud screaming of a man, it sounded like he was being torn to pieces, soon after came out a bloody and blank faced Kiba, holding a small orb. "I take it you destroyed a holy sword then," Xenovia asked looking at what it was he brought back out, it was part of a core that was used to forge Excaliburs, he only nodded and tossed it to her, she held it up and found that it was beyond saving, but it was proof that the sword is gone.

"I take it this means that you're going to head back to the Vatican now," Rias asked the two with her arms crossed, Xenovia looked thoughtful for a minute before shaking her head, "you're going to try and fight a leader class fallen angel like Kokabiel and make him pay for stealing, right?"

"Rias," Sone said and gained their attention, "am I to assume that you roped Saji into this to force a backing from me so that you could act without any political backlash," she guessed correctly and the smile on her close friend's face was all that told her as such.

"Good to see that your plan was a success Zen-Aku," Rias commented and directed the blame off of her, "but we need to make sure that we are informed, this is still our territory after all, so I think it's best if you two are watched by my queen so that retaliation is kept to a minimum."

"That seems fair, I doubt that Kokabiel wants to act against his plans being put on hold so soon though," Irina said seriously, it was reasonable to lick your wounds after a loss, but the fallen angel leader could always surprise them with an act while they had a false sense of security.

"I want to know the second something suspicious goes on, understood," Rias ordered her queen and got a respectful bow as a result, "good, but don't make it obvious that you're following them, just in case," she ordered and the two from the church walked back to the old church for rest.

Then they heard screaming followed by a light, then saw that Sona was spanking Saji with a magically enhanced hand, "I think you need more time to reflect on your actions," she said before spanking him again, clearly he was being punished because of acting without a king's consent.

"I'm sorry Sona, I beg your forgiveness," Saji screamed out from the complete thrashing that his butt was receiving, it must be quite painful if he was crying like he was, which reminded Zen-Aku that he needed to let Asia know that she'll be needed for the next part, a big battle most likely.

"Not yet, not until you've had a thousand spankings," Sona said professionally with her hand in the air and preparing for another strike before delivering another spank, and that one looked like it hurt quite a bit, he was just thankful that his pain tolerance was so high that he'd be unaffected.

Zen-Aku just turned and began to walk away, leaving the sounds of Saji screaming in pain at his back, "don't just walk away, help me you bastard," Saji screamed to him, the duke org just look over his shoulder for a moment before continuing to walk away, "forgive me Sona!"

* * *

The Next Evening

The next evening is when they finally heard something from Akeno, her and the two holy sword users had been checking out a magic source when they found the cause to be a cross, on it was the names of both Rias and Sona, but under it had sister of the despicable devil kings in red. So Akeno notified her king and they all headed out to meet the three, and when they got there is when a trap activated and something was floating above them, they looked up, "A fallen angel, and he has ten wings, he must be the leader class, Kokabiel," Akeno surmised.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, daughter of the house of Gremory, I am Kokabiel," the fallen one introduced, even though Akeno already introduced him it was just polite to introduce yourself, even though he was their enemy he still knew his manners, that was quite rare.

Rias stepped forward as she spoke with confidence, "the pleasure is all mine, and please call me Rias, so, you're the leader of the dark angels, it's nice to put a face with the name," though the smile was polite it clearly didn't reach her eyes because her face looked very strained.

"Your crimson hair is quite breathtaking, just as lovely as the scarlet haired devil king, and even the facial expressions are similar, how nauseating," Kokabiel commented with a grin, but you could tell he was quite upset at being forced to fight them himself since no one else was left.

"Thank you, but is there anything you'd like to discuss with me, or are you here to review my appearance, not that I'm rushing you, it's nice to see a leader close up," she shot right back and decided to cross her arms but still keep eye contact, this would be where they learn why he acted.

"I'm thinking of doing a little damage here, starting with this institution and moving on to the rest of the town," he said plainly already knowing what she was about to ask after that he told her, "I figure that if I do that, Sirzechs will have to come and help out his sister, what do you think?"

"You know that if you choose to do that, then you will be starting the war between God, the fallen angels, and the devils all over again," Rias said, her smile faded and her arms fell to her side, eyes narrowing into a glare up to the floating man, it was clear that that was what he wanted.

"Better than what I got for stealing the Excalibur's, I thought for certain Michael will come after me, but all I got was an amateur exorcist and some pathetic holy sword users, honestly it was disappointing yes, after the first three-way war ended, I was so bored because there was nothing to do. Azazel and Shemhazai were being so passive about when the next one would start, but not only is Azazel being distracted by a pending war, he is also spending most of his time collecting something known as the sacred gears, and he always gets so immersed into his collections," Kokabiel stated. "Though there is no need to generalize, also I have no interest in your boosted gear, I realize it might be a useful weapon, but I've got what I need, Azazel might want it, I'm sure he'd love to add a devil's toy to his collection, Fallen angels, God, devils, we all just in a state of equilibrium."

"Which means that you can start the war at any time with your own two hands," Rias interrupted herself now that she realized why he was doing all of this, he just wanted war, "you are a complete war maniac," though she meant it as an insult, he gave a light laugh at her realization.

"Obviously, why do you think I am using devils this time, I've got you, Rias Gremory, Lucifer's little sister, as well as Sona Sitri, Leviathan's sister, so I have no doubt that there is an abundance of power hanging over the school the two of you attend, I will make the perfect war zone," he told them. Everyone else was surprised by this, "oh, don't act so surprised, what do you say dear little sister of the devil king, nice day for a war, isn't it," Kokabiel called out before shooting down some spears of light from a magic circle Sona, Akeno, and Rias all put up magic barriers to protect everyone, only for him to disappear when they turned to him.

"I saw him head out toward the academy," Koneko pointed out as they saw said academy in the distance, he was long out of sight though, so now they just had to defeat a fallen angel that was very high up on the food chain while all of them were considered relatively low compared to others.

"Guys, he said he was going to start at the academy, but it probably won't be ending there, no telling what he'll do exactly, but it would be very easy for a fallen angel of that class to wipe us out," Sona guessed for them before they all decided to head to the school.

* * *

At the school

A glass like barrier was forming around the school when they arrived, and it looked like Sona's peerage was the one responsible, "we've covered the entire school in a protective barrier, if nothing drastic happens, then it should be able to keep anything in it from getting damaged," Sona stated. "Understand that this will only work if the conditions remain the same, I'll keep the barrier up, but I might not be able to keep the school from collapsing, as much as I'd prefer to avoid it, Rias it's not too late to contact your brother," she told her old friend to avoid contacting her sister.

Rias closed her eyes and shook her head, but before she could respond Akeno did, "there's no reason, I've already contacted Sirzechs," Rias glared, "I understand you don't want to bother him unless you absolutely must, but not even you can take on a leader-class, that qualifies as a must."

"Should be a fun hour for me then," Zen-Aku finally spoke up with his standard growling voice, they all turned to him to protest him fighting alone, "don't bother trying to worry, we all know that out of all of us I'm the one closest to him in power, and I've been boosting for a while now."

"Fine," Rias said with a small huff before they entered the barrier and walked to the training field of the school, they stopped in the school for a quick meeting though, "Zen-Aku I want you to at least be on support for a little while to transfer power to the rest of us to increase our strength. Let us take down some of his stamina with quick attacks and stall until he can boost his power back up," Rias offered so that they don't feel completely useless in the battle, "let's concentrate on being on the offensive for this battle, we have to keep Kokabiel from releasing his power. Unlike the fight with Riser could have gone, most of our lives will be on the line, but I won't allow us to die today, we will survive my dear servants, we will survive this fight so we can come back here and go to school once more," Rias stated with conviction.

This was the first time Zen-Aku actually summoned power and promoted to queen as they all headed out to the field and saw nothing wrong except the sky is a different color then what it should be, then they heard a voice, "so, is big brother coming yet, or is it Serafall instead."

They looked over and up in the sky set a throne-like chair hanging there and watching them, it was a large red throne on top of an upside down castle tower by the looks of it, "right now, we're the ones here ready to fight, that's all that matters," Rias said in a confident way.

Kokabiel's response was to generate a light spear and getting ready to throw it at them, but decided to throw it at the gymnasium instead, it was obliterated and left nothing but a crater, "ugh, this is so boring, I need a diversion, but since you came all this way to see me." That is when he seemed to have gotten an idea, "I might as well let you play with my favorite pets," Kokabiel said as he sent a beam of light to the ground and from it a magic circle was formed before a large hole with fire at the bottom formed, spitting out fire in a large wave.

It is from this torrent of flames that a large beast came out, at first it seems to three separate creatures, but then it stepped out of the flames and revealed a large three headed dog "Cerberus, living at the gates of the underworld, it's the watchdog of hades," Akeno introduced the creature.

"Bringing him to this world is forbidden, let's send him back," Rias ordered as everyone got ready for a fight, Akeno changing into her miko attire, Koneko brining out her tail and ears, "Zen-Aku transfer us some power," he took off his gauntlets, "how much can you give us anyways?"

"You'll find out," Zen-Aku said before shadow phasing and touching all of their allies gathered, Rias, Akeno, Koneko, Kiba, Xenovia, Irina, and finally Asia, a red seal appeared on all of them, and then in an instant green lines stretched from the dragon arm to all those touched with the seal. They immediately felt the power coursing through their veins, it was so strong, "I've been powering up since we first met Kokabiel, and with the promotion to queen I've only grown in power," he stated to all those that could hear, they smirked and charged for the Cerberus charging. One of the Cerberus went after Akeno and Rias, who easily dodge the attacks by using their wings to avoid their fire spewing, Akeno used some ice magic to freeze a stream of fire headed towards her, then Rias sent a wave of destruction magic to the creature, grounding it. Another one went straight for a charging Koneko who just jumped up to deliver a devastating leg drop to its middle head, Akeno only needed a second to charge up her attack and delivered a large thunder strike to the same dog in a strafing motion, it howled in pain as it fell to the ground.

Another Cerberus tried to attack them from behind, but that was guarded by Xenovia, Kiba and Irina, who fought with their own swords, Kiba using sword birth to entangle the mut while Xenovia and Irina struck at it with their holy swords, making quick work of them with their help. Thanks to the gift from Zen-Aku and his boosted gear, their power was amplified, so the Cerberus had no chance against two holy swords, a king with the power of destruction, a queen with a large talent for magic, a rook with senjutsu abilities, and a knight with sword birth, none survived.

While they fought the dogs though, Zen-Aku went for the fallen angel, using his shadow phasing he got there in a flash of darkness with his crescent blade ready to strike, so Kokabiel brought out his wings and wrapped them around himself while also dissolving his thrown into purple particles. The wings stopped the duke org's blade and with a slight push outward, sent him back a few feet, "I'm impressed, look," Kokabiel said while bringing up his wings, there was a dent in them as if a great force pushed them in, "you're quite strong for a devil, what do you say to switching sides."

"No," Zen-Aku said shadow phasing again and appeared a few feet behind the fallen one with his crescent blade in firing mode, "crescent wave," a pale yellow wave of energy was shot forth from him before it was caught by the fallen enemy and formed into a large magical sphere to his right.

"How about this," Rias called out as she sent a large wave of destruction aimed for him as well, it didn't work as he caught that as well and formed another sphere with his left hand before forcing both energies together and sending it for Rias, but Akeno got in the way and put up a barrier.

Sadly it shattered upon impact and she took the brunt of it, Rias was blown back some but was able to right herself and had to watch her friend fall, until Zen-Aku shadow phased down and grabbed her and they landed with her cradled in his arms, "you and Rias provide long range cover fire."

He set her down jumped back into the fray while Xenovia stabbed her Excalibur in the ground, "oh Peter, oh Basilius and Dionysius, and the Blessed Virgin Mary, I ask you to please hear my prayers," an intricate magic circle shimmered and focused into existence beside her. Out came the handle of broadsword with a blue blade and a golden edge, the sword has a semicircular guard on the left side of the handle that extends to the bottom just above the pommel, with a small extension on the right side of the handle, wrapped in chains as it exited. Xenovia gently rubbed her fingers along the hilt of the sword, "in the name of the saint living within this blade," she now grabbed the blade firmly, "I hereby set you free," the chains all snapped and she pulled the blade out holding it up with ease, "this is called Durandal."

Rias and Akeno were amazed at seeing her able to wield such a thing, Irina just cheered her on silently as she took on a serious face, if Xenovia was using Durandal, then she couldn't act any other way than serious as well, so they both looked to each other and nodded before charging. Koneko charged with them, this fight was going to be against someone able to take on the devil king, fighting in a great war is no small feat, so they needed all the help they could get, which must be why Kiba joined in the charge as well to provide some more skill to the charge.

Rias began to charge a large spell of destructive power while Akeno did the same with her lightning, when they released it created a large destructive and electrified vortex aimed for the fallen leader, who wrapped himself in his ten wings and let the attack hit him yet was protected. Irina, Xenovia, and Kiba all three charged with their holy swords, Xenovia attacking from his right while Kiba attacked his left, and finally Irina from the center each were blocked by quickly constructed swords of light, well the first two at least, the third was blocked by his wings. Then came another attack, this one was from Koneko who used her senjutsu to throw a light blue fire-like substance at him, it did nothing but bother his wings, then he twisted himself in a quick spin and all his wings attacked the four attacking him at once a knocked them all back.

Kokabiel was about to power up his swords of light and was about to launch that power, but had to cut it as Zen-Aku appeared before him with his own crescent blade, and with a swipe to the left made him block it instead, and then keep blocking the quick strike attacks that followed. Each one was getting more and more powerful by the strike, Kokabiel was forced to jump back to regain his composure, then launched the power then in smaller bursts that was too fast for many others, but Zen-Aku quickly spun away from them with a kind of glide until they were done. Then he charged again, Kokabiel was starting to get mad now though, so charged up the attack now before he got there and let it loose in a large crossing wave of power, that was only barely blocked in time to give the others a chance to block it as well, and thankfully they all survived it.

"Still wanting more, hugh, hop to it already," Kokabiel demanded while they all got their baring, Kiba was the one to challenge him, first he made a ring of swords around him that was blocked and destroyed by his wings, then went for a right swing that was caught with his fingers. That didn't stop him though because then made another swing that was also caught with his fingers, but then came one from his mouth, that caught him off guard enough to not block it in time and received a cut on his cheek because of it, "you cut me," he stated in agitation. He then just decided to get rid of the pest by sending a blast of concentrated magical power for Kiba, thankfully he was saved thanks to Xenovia who got there in time to block it thanks to her Durandal, the attack dissipated thanks to her cutting it in half soon after. "Why fight so hard for a group of losers who don't even know they've lost their master," he questioned the blue haired girl with contempt, though he probably shouldn't have said that, because that is when things seemed to have gone straight to hell for him, in hindsight at least.

"What," Xenovia asked dumbly before adding more force to it, "mind clarifying by telling me what 'lost their master' is supposed to mean," it was starting to make since to those who could think about it and didn't really think religiously like the others, so his eyes widened a bit though.

"Woops, that just slipped right out, though I guess since I am starting a war, you might as well learn the brutal truth on the matter," this was about to be a big reveal, "in the previous war, God was killed along with the four great devil kings," he said with actual happiness in his tone.

Now everyone was completely freaking out, Xenovia stared on in horror at the information, Irina looked ready to fall down and die from the shock, and Asia was no better, "god is dead, how is that possible, your lying, I've never heard anything about that," Rias shouted out in her own shock.

"Back then the devils lost all their kings and high level devils, the angels and fallen angels lost almost everyone except for their leaders, pure angels could not increase their numbers and pure bread devils are just as rare, aren't they," Kokabiel informed, nobody could dispute this fact. "All sides have been ruined to the point where they have to rely on humans to survive, angels, fallen angels, devils the leaders of the three factions had to seal away this information, and that way the God fearing humans will keep on fearing."

Xenovia looked to be about to pass out because she dropped to her knees in shock of it, Irina and Asia though, they were now staggering and looked ready to faint at that exact moment, but they had a job to do so it seems that Zen-Aku will have to give them a nice pep talk, oh the joy.

"Now try to remember that I couldn't care less about any of that, what drives me crazy is the fact that after God and those devil kings died, it was decided to stop the war, why would they do something like that in the middle of winning," now he just began sounding like a lunatic. "How dare they try and keep me from squashing my enemies just as it was getting fun, we could have won, even that bastard Azazel declared that they would never be another war, what the fuck," Kokabiel exclaimed in absolute furry at being denied a war.

Asia started to stand while saying, "God doesn't exist, then where has the love that has been given to us coming from," her question was a good one, and even though Zen-Aku himself couldn't really understand what this 'love' was, he knew that it was wrong to question it.

"Heh, Michael has been holding his own so far, he's the one who's been keeping the angels and humans together in God's stead, but as long as the system works, prayer and exorcisms will endure to a certain extent, I'm sure someone has been listening," Kokabiel didn't sound helpful.

Asia and Irina both fainted at that moment, Asia was caught by Koneko who had been right beside her, Irina was caught by Kiba who she was checking on before the news struck them, "it's a natural," Xenovia was struggling, "a natural reaction, I'm surprised I can still think right now."

"Well I suppose knowing the number of believers in God has drastically dropped probably doesn't help anything, does it, but without anyone to manage the balance between good and evil it's no wonder that something contradictory like the Holy Devil Sword would appear," he informed. Everyone was shocked, and then confused by the revelation, "oh your knight didn't tell you, somehow he's gotten such an ability now, but this means the war must continue, and I'll keep it going by taking your heads if I have to," he growled out and made ready a charge of his own.

That was until Zen-Aku began talking, "who cares if someone like this God is dead," he asked and everyone turned to him in shock, "none of our lives will change by the news, and if you can't serve those that lied to you, serve those that have never actually lied to you," he offered. Then his phone began to ring, and it wasn't at all a song that they thought they would hear from his phone, it was by a band called Halestorm, name of the song was Mz. Hide, or rather it was the part of the song saying 'hello it's Mz. Hide' over and over again as that was a clue. "Excuse me," he turned and pulled out his phone and answered the call, "hello… that's great, but I'm in the middle of a big battle here… yes he is strong… encouragement would be good but I don't think," he was cut off because he got a text, he opened and then went to his caller. "Thank you for that… yes I'll be safe, now thank you for such a gift and I'll let you know how badly I get injured later… you know you're the only one I'll tell… alright, goodnight to you as well princess," he hung up the phone and put it in his back pocket and turned to see everyone agape at him.

Zen-Aku would have explained if he was some awkward teenager, but he was a battle hardened warrior, so he used the lack of awareness to his advantage and charged for Kokabiel, and with only his own thoughts, the sacred gear changed into a rougher designed gauntlet, on his way. The fallen angel had barely any time to react as the shifting of the gauntlet sounded and the duke org was upon the fallen leader, his crescent blade in his right and his dagger in his left, first was the strike to the man's right cheek, and with a twist of the wrist was able to cut deep into the face. It was a scar that attached to the one Kiba made, only deeper and far wider than the knight's own, but the duke org wasn't done, he kept the force of the punch up and used it to spin so that he bottom of his blade would stab into the gut of Kokabiel, it worked and he was forced cough blood. Yet Zen-Aku kept going again and yanked the blade from him and at point blank range aiming into the man's chest built up a smaller orb of the same pale and yellow light at the tip of his crescent blade and fired the built up energy in his new crescent shot, leaving a hole in his chest.

Just then the barrier around them shattered like glass and down came the cause, that being a pale blue light that shrunk into its owner to bring out a white body suit, which oddly reminded him of the rangers, or at least what a body suit form of their combined zords might look like. Yet his hand, the dragon hand on his left arm was pulsing, not out of fear, out of desire, anticipation, a yearning to fight this person, "this is quite a terrible thing you've done," it talked to him as it stared at the unmoving body of the fallen angel leader with a hole in his chest.

"He attacked first, therefore it's fine," Zen-Aku made his crescent blade vanish from sight as he always does, "I'm guessing you're this white one that was mentioned to me that I'm destined to fight," the white armored man nodded to his guess, "then we should put off for when both are ready."

"Good idea," the white one noted dryly, but also with a hint of humor, "I've also been charged with bringing back Kokabiel alive and to make sure nothing fatal has happened to him until he's faced Azazel's judgement," he began to calmly walk over to where the still standing corpse was.

"Then take your failed charge and leave," the duke org picked up the fallen corpse by the throat and tossed it to the one in white, he caught it easily enough by the throat and just nodded before turning and unfolding his wings and took off, no more words were needed to be said between them.

Zen-Aku walked calmly to the others that just stared at him in amazement as Sona and her group approached them, "I wonder why the white dragon would show up out of the blue like that," Sona asked as her greeting and yet saw the still look of wonder at her friend to the duke org.

"To collect the dead body of Kokabiel," the duke org answered as he calmly walked to them with a determined aura about him, "though to be honest he didn't mean to be collecting a dead body, only to bring Kokabiel back to Azazel," he told her and walked to where Asia was just waking up. He scooped her into his arms and began to calmly walk to Rias and saw that she still just stood there gaping at him, he smacked her upside the head to snap her out of it, she rubbed the area he hit to sooth the pain, "I'm taking Asia home, she's had a long day," he turned and left them. Asia for her part was just feeling warmth after she was beginning to wake up, like being carried by a big and soft protective animal, and when she opened her eyes she saw the one that is actually being a father to her, and over the course of their relationship, she's starting to see him as such.

* * *

ORC room after the next day of school

"Hello, Red Dragon Emperor," Xenovia said as she and Irina walked into the room in Kuoh academy uniforms, Xenovia with her usually cool expression and Irina with a depressed expression that seemed sadder then when they were first introduced to her, way sadder.

"Good you found us, well welcome to the club new knight of the house of Gremory, Xenovia Quarta and my rook Irina Shidou," Rias announced to everyone when they all finally arrived, the last being the two formerly mentioned new additions to the peerage, very new additions as well.

"I know it's unexpected but after we found out that God had actually died, we were desperate so Xenovia was the one that begged her to take us in," Irina told them, her voice sounded horse from crying non-stop from the point she woke up until just this morning, such is her faith.

"It'll be nice to have the Durandal user added to our ranks, with this, you and Kiba will be the swordfighters covering our right and left flanks while Irina and her still usable Excalibur Mimic will be with Koneko protecting and front and back from enemy attacks, should be fun," Rias informed.

"We also transferred to this school as a second-year student earlier today, it looks like we get to work together," Irina tried to sound cheerful but it still came out all horse and came off as an almost choked sob, but she fought and held back her tears and decided not to try that again.

"I know it must be difficult being in this school and being the thing you've spent your whole life fighting against, but if you need anything, know that here are people here to help now that you're a part of this peerage," Zen-Aku told them, honestly though, he felt a bit guilty considering.

"Without God, we have no meaning, and we honestly don't know if becoming our old enemy is the best thing, but for the little sister of the devil king she's been shockingly kind, oh I hope I made the right choice, I feel like I have but there's so much doubt, please help me, O lord," Xenovia prayed.

Yet after she prayed she felt pain, though Irina also prayed with her out of instinct and felt pain as well, that seemed to brake the damn though, because after that she banged on the floor, "it's not fair *bang*, first Issei is either kidnapped or killed now I can't even pray to a dead God." She continued to bang on the floor as she began to cry and wail, her life was falling a part faster than anyone should have to go through, so much tragedy and still so young, and all she could do was lay on the floor and cry into herself as her friend tried to comfort her the best she could.

The attempt to sooth took a little while, but she finally calmed down and was to fatigued, "as you can see, her faith is deeper than mine, and she's not taking the news very well, so I ask that you please help us to find a new path to focus on, maybe after she focuses on that she can be helped. As for the church side, we are now dangerous people who found out the truth about something we shouldn't have, so the church has declared us as heretics, but we were able to send back the cores of the remaining holy swords and even destroyed one's fragments," Xenovia informed. "By the way Asia, the things I said to you were wrong, you may hit me if it will make you feel better, for a holy sword user to be cast out for knowing the truth, it's changed the way I look at everything. I can't get their treatment of me out of my head, I must have made you feel the same way."

"Xenovia, don't be sad, in case you couldn't tell I am wonderfully satisfied here, even though I am a devil now, I have never felt more blessed, I've met so many people who mean so much to me, I've never been this happy before in my whole life," Asia said with a smile looking to her father.

"You know I would love it if you would show us around the school sometime," she asked Asia, who nodded happily before she turned to Irina, "Right Irina," the girl looked up and nodded once before lowering back down, "also, I would like to try my Durandal against your holy devil sword."

"I was thinking the same thing," Kiba said while looking to Irina with a mixture of pity and understanding, he once had faith and had it tested, and he also had to know that his own childhood friends were killed, but the pity came from who was standing with them in the room.

"Listen to my voice Irina," Rias called out from her seat, it was firm but at the same time gentle, "you will get through this, I don't know how or what you're goal will be after this, but I promise you," she rose from her seat and walked to the downed girl, lowering herself to her level. "We will all help you to heal from this, you will get out stronger than you can imagine," she wrapped herself around the two on the floor, "we will all help you," on que everyone else went in and wrapped their arms in a big group hug as well, everyone except for Zen-Aku though.

This was a private moment, a moment that was for the emotionally involved, so he decided to not be amongst them and walk out instead, and it was then that his phone rang again with the same song, he still had no idea how she even got that on his phone, but he answered, "hello."

"I'm glad I caught you at a better time then the last time," Venelana said on the other end sounding playful, but with a hint of worry in her tone, he grunted a positive grunt, "good… listen," she was hesitating, "I told you last time that my divorce was being completed next week, right?"

"Yes, I remember that being the first thing you said to me after I said hello during a battle, but yes you did tell me that," Zen-Aku said carefully, she was hesitating to ask what she was about to ask, or inform him of something else as well, "whatever it is you wish to ask or tell me you can."

His statement seemed to calm some of her nerves but not all, but she decided to come out with it, "you once told me that you had an adoptive daughter, right," he gave a positive grunt, "and I told you that I had a son and daughter, right," another positive grunt let her continue her desire. "I was just wondering that if you don't think it would be us moving too fast or if you though that it was too soon at least, maybe we could introduce our children to each other soon, maybe me meeting yours first or you meeting mine but I just thought that we could at least get that over with."

So that was her desire, he saw nothing wrong with it, life is often short and unexpected, they have seen much of each other, both their character and what lies beneath their clothing, so he said, in hindsight, what would lead him to the largest headache in history, "very well, meet Asia first."


	7. First Meetings and Second Introductions

Demon Duke Org

Chapter 7

First Meetings and Second Introductions

Zen-Aku was with the other members of the Occult Research Club and at the moment they were outside, training as usual, well, for the duke org it was to train them all up, but to everyone else it just felt like he was beating them for little to no reason, on the surface at least that was the feel. This was still training however so they were in the middle of combat in teams to see who can outlast the other, the teams were A team consisting of Rias, Akeno, Koneko, Kiba, Xenovia, and Irina going against B team, which was Zen-Aku, Asia was on standby ready to jump in to heal. The teams at first glance looks uneven, however Zen-Aku has already proven that the rest of the peerage can't go against him, so the added addition to the training they had already gone through and Xenovia and Irina was a bit much to some, but amazingly it was still an uneven matchup.

Kiba tried to strike with his wooden sword, they had switched to using them to help prevent further injury to themselves, yet Zen-Aku blocked the strike with his own wooden blade with one hand and grabbed the boy's wrist with the other before turning and using it to block Xenovia's. He then took his own sword and blocked Irina's forward thrust with the flat of the blade, then he brought up his leg and kicked Irina in the temple before bringing that same leg in a spinning motion and striking Kiba's head with it while turning and disarming Xenovia with a twist of the wood. Xenovia moved for her own disarming, but moved too late because in the end she didn't see the fist that struck at her gut until it was implanted in, then came the quick striking knees that only further injured her before she was thrown away from the duke org in time to block the kick.

Following the leg he could see Koneko in her Nekomata form, she smirked briefly before sending rapid fire kicks to his blocking arms before he saw the opening and quickly grabbed her right foot when it was sent out to kick him, before swinging her to slam into the ground back first. She wasn't finished though, so she twisted her foot free and shot up to punch at him with quick jabs, each one was blocked or deflected one was grabbed and the momentum was used to twist her arm back to the point where she had to fall back and slammed into the ground again. Koneko took her left fist and punched at him to get him off her right arm when he rolled off her and shot up only a second before she did, but it was enough time to strike her jaw making her turn to where her back was to him where he jumped up and stuck at her temple to down her.

Akeno and Rias, who had been working on their own physical and magical power each, ran for him with Akeno electrifying her hands and sent a close range wave of lightning out while Rias sent a wave of destruction for him as well, he was forced to dodge by jumping backwards a bit. Rias had her wave chase after him to distance himself from the two of them for some long ranged attacks, Akeno did the same with her lightning, some point shooting fire at him as well, just to throw him off even more, yet he was still dodging their attacks by backing up. Then he reached the edge of the forest, so he ran to his left and let their magic chase after him, each little while closing the distance until they spotted what he was doing and Akeno tried to freeze the ground, which forced Rias to halt her attacks and help her to add to the magic power. This gave Zen-Aku the time he needed to jump off the ground as it was frozen and send his own org lightning at them, though instead of them it hit the ground kicking up dust, this was a tactic they had seen before though so they knew what was coming after that, he drop down on one. Yet as the smoke cleared he didn't seem to be coming, then they turned and Rias saw just in time for Akeno to be swept off the ground with a leg sweep before a backhand caught her sending her into a blissful coma, leaving just her to try and fend him off alone. Yet she still couldn't do much as the beast still charged for her a millisecond after attacking Akeno other than at least block the punch for her gut with her arms, but failed to block the left elbow to her head before getting choke slammed into the ground and thus ending the match with his win.

Zen-Aku looked around as the others were getting up, other than Akeno and Rias who were obviously still unconscious from his recent win, "when you guys told us he was brutal in his training, I didn't know you meant feeling like a truck ran you over brutal," Irina commented.

"Yeah," Kiba replied as he struggled to stand and regain his balance to the head shots that he received, sometimes he really hated it when he trained with the duke org, but there was no better trainer as far as he was concerned, "I'd say you get used to it, but you never really do."

Xenovia was trying to help Irina to stand, despite her own stomach killing her, what was his fists made of to hit that hard, her friend's balance was a bit off from being hit the temple with that monster's kick, "and I thought our loss to him when we first met was bad," she muttered.

"That was nothing," Koneko said from her position still on the ground, she didn't want to move, her back was killing her, her feet were sore, and to be honest she didn't feel like talking, but you don't always get what you want, "he's beaten us worse when we all started out doing this."

"True, but that could be contributed with all of you improving," Zen-Aku stated leaning against a nearby tree while Asia jogged over and began healing what she could, another long session and another harsh use on everyone's stamina, "but we have been at this for a while now correct?"

"We have," Rias stated as she slowly rose from her position, like every other time they trains she hurt all over, and every time she thought she's figured his moves out, he introduces a few more, "and once we get healed up I have an announcement," she said before she let out a groan.

After a long session of healing, everyone was back inside the clubroom and sitting in various places, or leaning against the wall between windows in Zen-Aku's case, and Rias told them the big news that is going on, "a leader summit," the duke org said thoughtfully after being told.

"That's it, it's absolutely true, I received confirmation earlier, we're going to need to make a plan and discuss what will happen in the future, any thoughts on the matter," Rias asked her peerage while rubbing her still sore throat form the chokeslam that she received not a few moments ago.

"I still can't believe this happened, all relationships have been changed, nothing's the same between anyone, devils, angels, or fallen angels," Xenovia thought out loud from her spot on the couch facing the window, Irina was beside her and Asia beside of her, all were drinking tea.

"That's why a meeting of this sort can make things more complicated, and I honestly can't help but wonder what's really going on, I do have a theory however," Rias thought out loud, then looked to Zen-Aku, "I need you to come here during school hours tomorrow, in human form."

Zen-Aku rose an eyebrow but decided to go along with it but, "I'll be here, but after school me and Asia have a meeting that can't really be put off any longer," Rias made to ask why with a curious eye, "don't even think about it, this is private business, as in not any of yours."

He walked out after that and left it at that, Rias though didn't like this little private business, so she turned to Asia, "Asia I want you to tell me if you think this private business will effect any of us in any way, okay," she asked and the girl nodded, "good, now as for tomorrow bring swimwear."

* * *

The next day

Everyone stood in front of a very dirty pool, "hehehe, it hasn't been used since last year," Akeno informed them as they stood off to the side and waited until Rias told them why they were even here, though seeing as they were in front of a dirty pool, it was a bit obvious to tell why.

"How does it make sense for our club to have to clean the swimming pool," Xenovia asked as she stood between Akeno and Irina, the lineup on the edge of the pool was Zen-Aku, Asia, Kiba, Koneko, Akeno, Xenovia, Irina, and finally Rias, and she did have a point with that.

"It's actually the student councils job, but we've taken it over, we thought that taking on this responsibility would be a great way to thank them for all the help they gave us with Kokabiel, on the plus side, after we finish cleaning it, the pool will be ours to use as often as we like. For at least a little while," Rias informed them before turning to them fully "what do you say we blow their minds with how clean the Occult Research Club can make the school pool," the all voiced their agreements when Rias said that, everyone except for Zen-Aku that at least nodded.

They headed to the changing rooms and changed into some gym clothes, though Zen-Aku just put on some dark grey shorts and a black t-shirt, they soon began to drain the pool, then cleaned the gunk out by hand until it was all clear, then used a water hose to rinse the pool edge. After that they used brooms to spread the water around and make sure it was nice and clean before draining the water in it again, this time they were able to see it shine and glisten in the sun, so now that that was done, they could now have some fun, so they did.

Akeno came out with a red and blue shoulder strapless bikini on, right bust had a top half blue and lower half red with the left being the inverse, the bust was connected by a silver ring in the middle with her underboob showing, to hold it up, a blue strap from the silver ring to around her neck. The bottoms had red and blue as well, the blue was on her front with it going around her left waist, the red was on her back side and wrapped around her right waist, it was clear that the swimsuit was new and only recently being worn by her, must be wanting to show off some. Rias came out in a white bikini, the bottom half was held together with three gold rings on each side of the bottom, the top was held up with a strap tied at the back of the neck, the breasts were held to the strap with a gold ring as well, it was clear that this one was new as well. Xenovia came out with a green two piece bikini, though the top was mostly just green pieces of cloth over the majority of her breasts, left some underboob exposed, between them was four golden lines, the golden lines wrapped around her back and held the cloth in place. The bottom part of her bikini was not as modest as the top, it was just a green cloth that covered her lower regions barely enough to count and didn't cover much of her backside, the four golden lines connected around her hips and held the cloth in place. Irina came out in probably the least daring of them all, a simple orange two piece bikini, it was simple in design and didn't really overly show off anything and didn't really under show what she had either, a simple thing that complimented her enough to appear better than the rest. Asia and Koneko was in their school swimsuits, only difference is Asia had her name on hers and Koneko's was blank with a white wrapping around her head, for some reason they didn't feel the need to go overly flashy with their swimwear, though on closer look that was a good thing. Kiba came out in a speedo, not the worst thing that the duke org could have seen him coming out in, but personally he liked his own choice, a simple pair of light grey trunks that was completely blank, the only thing he had that could be considered as swimwear, he didn't care much for it.

Akeno then filled the swimming pool with water she got from a magic circle, with that, it was filled in mere moments, "Zen-Aku, I have a question for you," Rias asked the duke org and he just looked over at her, "can you help out Asia and Koneko with learning how to swim, please."

"That I can do," Zen-Aku said as he approached the two girls, they looked up at him before he picked them up by the back of their swimsuits and brought them to his eye level, "keep calm and hold your arms out to your side, keep kicking your feet lightly, and stay there," he told them. The others all got a feeling of dread when they heard him say that, the two he was about to teach looked at him with worry, "I teach with a sink or swim approach, you learn that way, or you drown," then he did the unthinkable, he tossed them into the pool like it was nothing.

The others all stared at what he did with horror as he tossed in two people who couldn't swim into a pool and just stood there with his arms crossed as if waiting for them to do something other than thrash around for a minute before Asia calmed down and scrunched up her face. She stuck her arms out and straightened herself while lightly kicking in place, she was floating, she cracked her eyes open and looked to see Zen-Aku nod his head in approval, she smiled brightly for she floated, she didn't sink and instead floated, she was proud of herself for that. Koneko took some time but when she spotted Asia doing it she tried to get her carriage and finally she did the same thing as well, she was floating like Asia, on instinct she looked up and saw the rest of the peerage had horrified looks that the duke org did that while said guy nodded at her.

"Good, you know how to float on your own, now keep kicking and move your body to float on the water, while kicking I want you to bring your arm and scoop it behind you, make sure to turn your head in the opposite direction of the arm you're using, now go," Zen-Aku ordered the girls. They decided to move and began swimming as much as they could until it looked like they were sinking a bit, "don't forget to keep kicking," he ordered and they did so, they weren't sinking anymore and they continued to swim some more, they were doing good for beginners.

"You went with the sink or swim method, literally in this case," Xenovia pointed out from beside him and made sure to note how well they were doing mentally, "but I think you nearly gave our king a heart attack," she turned to said girl and saw how she was fuming at him.

"They are swimming aren't they, don't forget that my style has always been this way, so deal with it," the duke org stated and they couldn't help but agree, but didn't mean that Rias had to like it, in fact she hated it, her precious servants needed to be protected, not put in danger needlessly.

After they all got over their shock they decided to have some fun, Rias and Akeno had a small swimming competition while Kiba swam in an underwater swimming marathon, Xenovia and Irina had a small swimming competition as well, and after Asia and Koneko got out, they laid on towels. Zen-Aku would have gotten in the water as well, but his fur doesn't do well in pools, too easy to clog up a drain and as such he doesn't get in them all that much, so instead he chose to act as a lifeguard instead, making sure there was nothing dangerous or life endangering going on in the pool. When the girls all decided to put some lotion on themselves for some sun tanning, he turned away from them as they rubbed each other, and when they were done and their tops were back on he made sure to get an overview of the pool, they all looked to be safe and fine with the pool day.

Soon the pool day was over and everyone was all smiles as they all headed back to the clubroom, and soon they were in their normal attire as well, "now that the day is over with, me and Asia need to head home," Zen-Aku stated as he made to leave via the door this time until it was blocked.

Blocked by a glowing silver magic circle appearing and out came a red haired man, Sirzechs, "this looks like a good time, is there some sort of event going on," the devil king said, said man came out along with Grayfia and as soon as he saw the duke org he narrowed his eyes at the beast.

Akeno, Koneko, and Kiba all bowed before him while Asia stood by Zen-Aku's side in wonder and Xenovia and Irina looked on in what seemed to be confusion, Rias in shock and suspicion as to why her brother was here, "what are you doing here," was that a hint of venom in her voice.

Asia stared in wonder, which didn't go unnoticed by Sirzechs, so he decided to speak with her and ignore his little sister's question for the moment, "your Asia Argento, I've been told that you're an excellent bishop and that you're taking really good care of our Rias," said girl shifted nervously. "Don't look so nervous my dear, I'm merely here to conduct some private business matters," the devil king informed and waved her off, though he did seem to note how close she was standing to Zen-Aku and didn't seem to like that, or the narrowing of his eyes to said devil king.

"What private business," Rias asked, seriously why was he not answering the question and why was he here to begin with, all she wanted was for someone to answer that question soon, but she was ignored because Xenovia chose that moment to step up and introduce herself.

"It's very good to meet you, I've heard so much, I'm Xenovia and this is my friend Irina," was her respectful introduction along with her best friend, her friend though still seemed apprehensive about getting to close to the man since everyone else seemed to have a bit of annoyance towards him.

"Pleasure to meet you miss Xenovia, I didn't believe my ears at first when I heard the Durandal user and another Excalibur user had joined my sister, what a beautiful decision you two have made," Sirzechs commented with a smile, this time with closed eyes instead of eyeing the duke org.

"I do wonder if we didn't think over our decision to become a devil long enough, and we still sometimes regret what we did, I mean what was it that made us want to change in the first place, were we just desperate, did we even have a choice," Irina's self-musing was stopped by his chuckle.

"It's nice there are those in my sister's family that make her laugh, Xenovia and Irina, I would like to ask you two to support the house of Gremory as part of Rias's family," Sirzechs asked her as smoothly as he could, his voice like silk to some of their ears, but not to the duke org's.

"I guess we have no choice if the devil king commands it so, I promise we will do our very best sir, it will be an honor and a pleasure," Xenovia informed him in a very polite tone, Irina did so as well, but her smile seemed to be quite strained when talking to this man, it felt wrong to her.

"And you have yet to tell me what you're doing here exactly," Rias stated in both confusion and silent rage, she has yet to forgive her brother for not doing all he could to get her out of that marriage contract and she knew that he could, he just refused to do so to save face.

"You honestly don't know, isn't it almost time for open house," Sirzechs rhetorically asked, "I can't wait to see my little sister in action at school, and I know that father will be here too to also support you," he told her, that brought an open scowl to her face at the mention of the man.

"I want that man nowhere near me or any of my servants, he has no right to call himself my father and no right to anything with what he's done, and you can't just leave like that, you have work to do, you're the devil king and you have responsibilities," Rias reasoned and insulting.

"That was uncalled for Rias, father did what was best for the family as the current family head and this counts as work too, because your school seems like it would be a lovely place, we were thinking we might want to hold the leader's summit there," he informed her after berating her.

"You can't possibly be thinking of me forgiving that man for driving not only me away but also mom, you can do what you want with this place and the leader's summit for all I care, but if I catch him anywhere close then I'm calling for open war on him," she snarled seriously.

Zen-Aku looked back and forth between them and decided that this might be the best time for him to leave, "well this is where me and Asia have to leave, you people can stay here if you want but we're going," he made to step around him only to be blocked by a hand from the devil king.

"Sorry to ask this of you, but would it be alright if we slept at your place with you tonight, we'll find a hotel in the morning," Sirzechs pleaded the duke org, even turned on some minor puppy dog eyes trick and had a small pouty lip, made him look a bit like Rias to be honest, weird.

"No," Zen-Aku stated plainly and led Asia out of the room, didn't even look back as another large argument broke out between them all, the two could hear the shouting even as they continued to walk down the hallway, it seemed it got louder the farther they got until it was done with. The duke org let out a small sigh under his mask before he grabbed Asia and they shadow phased to their home before entering, "get showered and changed into some nice clothes, we're going to have a guest that has been dying to meet you," he said pleasantly that got her nervous.

"Who is it, please tell me it isn't someone from the underworld that you want me to seduce, I don't wanna," Asia said in defiance and got a strange look as if to ask if he would put her through that, "oh, wait, you wouldn't do that would you, who is this guest if he's not from your work?"

"The guest is a she, not a he, and the truth is that for a while now I've been seeing someone, dating her if you wish to call it that, been meeting her on cover of some of my jobs for the past month, and now it is time that we introduce our children to each other, test the waters as it were. This is just so she can meet you, testing to see how you do with her and if it goes good I'm going to have dinner at her place where I'll be meeting with her daughter and/or son, apparently he's very busy and can't always make it to family functions," Zen-Aku told her and she brightened.

"You mean I might be getting a mom and a sister and a brother," Asia looked so delighted that she was jumping up and down for joy at getting more of a family, first she gets great friends and now she's getting a family, this was a wonderful thing, she'd have to thank God tonight.

"Sort of, remember that this is just a meeting to see how meeting my daughter would work out," the duke org told her but she wasn't listening, "but yes she does have a daughter about your age but even if you don't gain a stepsister you can still be friends with her if you two meet."

"Yay," Asia hugged her father before running upstairs to get ready for meeting what might eventually be her new mom, the duke org just shook his head, he headed to the kitchen and began fixing dinner to wait for her arrival, hopefully this little meeting will go very well.

After Asia was done with her shower came the time for Zen-Aku's, truth be told, he was nervous himself, Venelana should be here by seven and right now it's five, so he has two hours to calm those nerves and prepare dinner, which is another thing for him to be concerned about, his cooking. When they meet it's always in a restaurant or somewhere they could talk over a special time, they've already been to an amusement park already and they loved it, thanks to both their youthful looks, they look like young adults having a good time together, even went to a photo booth. That string of photos were copied and they each have a set, Zen-Aku has his in a box he keeps hidden in his closet, every date that they've been on has ended up with him getting a souvenir from it, that was what the box was for, to keep the small trinkets that they've gotten.

The duke org came out of the shower in his human form and headed back downstairs to finish preparing the meal, Asia was keeping everything going for him while he was in the shower so nothing overheated or was cooked improperly, "what is her name," Asia asked when she saw him.

"Venelana Bael, she's also a devil and knows about the life of one so there are no secrets from her, she even knows that Rouki isn't my true name or form, I described it to her and she honesty doesn't mind it, this will be the first time she actually sees me truly though," Zen-Aku told her.

He was fixing a meal for the first time, a meal that wasn't meant for quickly fixing and high nutrient giving while on the run, no it was just his first time cooking a meal that took time and patience to fix, and he had plenty of both, "that's nice to hear, but what's she like personality-wise?"

"She's kind and compassionate, so don't worry about having an old evil step-mother," the duke org casually mentioned and the ex-nun shivered, why anyone let her watch Cinderella was lost on the both of them, "and we also don't know if we'll get married, perhaps just remain as we are now."

"NO," Asia exclaimed out to the duke org while slamming her hands on the island in the kitchen and rose from a bar stool that was around the island to sit on, "sorry," she looked down a bit nervously, "but I know what you've been planning," she informed him and he raised an eyebrow. She looked at him with sad eyes, "you planned on leaving the first chance you got and knew that I was fine, but you shouldn't do that, you should stay with people, I know you feel like you need to be the lone wolf, but nobody can stand solitude forever, and that shouldn't be what you want."

Zen-Aku looked to Asia for a moment before he finally spoke, "I was going to do that, to leave after I knew that you would be fine on your own so that I could continue to be on my own," she looked very sad like she would cry soon from the admission alone, she looked down to the table. "That was before I met Venelana, and with her now free to be with whoever she wishes, after I am sure that you are fine on your own, and her children are also safe from threats, me and her may leave to be alone together," she still looked sad, "never said you couldn't visit us though."

Asia rose her head up, "you mean it, I can come visit you two when you two move away," with a small nod of his head in acknowledgement, he confirmed her question, she jumped up for joy at that, "I still feel sad that you will eventually be leaving, but at least we'll have until then." She jumped from her seat and hugged him around the neck, his back was still to her from where he was trying to also cook, so it was a bit awkward with her basically jumping on his back to give it, but he at least touched her arm as a way to hug her back, kind of. 'Ding dong', the sound of the doorbell rang out and broke the awkward, for Zen-Aku at least, hug and let the duke org go get the door, "I thought she was a devil, can't she just teleport in," Asia questioned as she followed him out to the hallway and to the front door and he turned to Rouki.

"She is, but we want to ease you into our relationship first before she pops up out of nowhere at a random moment," he stated as he grabbed the door handle, he opened it up as Asia bowed in greeting, Rouki had the door jarred only before whoever was there slammed the door wide open.

"Urgh, I hate my brother, thinking he knows best about every damn thing," none other than Rias stormed in like a stubborn child that just lost a fight with a parent and is only now coming up with a good argument, she didn't even notice that Asia was in her old nun uniform or Rouki was not Zen-Aku. She just stormed past them and headed for the living room before just plopping down on the couch with a huff, clearly the talks with her brother didn't go very well, but that was no excuse, "he's staying at my place for the night, but I just can't deal with that sis-con right now."

Rouki was about to say something when Grayfia herself came in silently following after Rias, "my lady, Sirzechs only does what he thinks is best, you know how your brother can be," it was said in an almost soothing tone, or at least it was guessed that she was trying to be gentle in her tone.

"What has Sirzechs done that makes you so upset Rias," Asia curiously asked, forgetting that they had someone else coming over and they can't be playing therapist at the moment, "isn't he just here scouting a meeting point for the leader summit they're going to have here," she recalled.

"Not just that, apparently now he thinks I'm capable of controlling another of my pieces that was locked away, because I 'couldn't control his power', that was Sirzechs words, not mine," Rias grumbled out before perking up, "and why are you two in nice clothes, and Rouki is out, why?"

"We are going to be hosting someone Rias I'm in the process of preparing the food for when they arrive, so I don't have time to play therapist for you and your messed up brother's relationship, so please leave," Rias was about to say something when a red glow from a magic circle appeared.

Out from it came Sirzechs himself, his features were fixed to where no emotion got past it, "I should have known you'd be here," he sounded a bit disappointed at her choice of retreat, "listen, I know I'm being painted in a bad light right now, but I'm just making judgments that are right."

"Right," Rias huffed out, crossing her arms under her bust, "just like how you made the decision to almost make me marry Riser, because it was 'for my own good', or 'he's not so bad', I've been told that lie by both you and father, no wonder mom divorced him and isn't speaking to you."

"That was uncalled for Rias," the devil king growled, that was still a sore spot for him apparently, "the decision I made was for the good of all devils, just because you didn't like him you chose to rebel and forced my hand, as well as almost starting a war between two clans with your refusals."

Rouki had closed the door and was now rolling his eyes at how this night was turning out, he had a plan, he had a set time for everything, but that didn't matter when idiots were involved was there, and just when he thought this night couldn't turn out any worse, a knock was heard. Then two more knocks, and then finally three, the fighting stopped as the group turned to Rouki who closed his eyes and prayed to Animus that it wasn't Venelana, and yet when he opened the door it was exactly as he feared, the devil was standing there with a nice smile on her face. She was wearing a nice dress that hugged her curves, it was a nice deep violet that was darker than her eyes and complimented her nicely, she had a clutch for a purse and had it and her hands folded in front of her with her eyes closed, "hi sweetie," she said as she leaned in and kissed his cheek.

"That voice," Rias wondered out loud from the living room, a rushing of feet could be heard and the couple turned back to look at the sight of Sirzechs and Rias looking like they have seen a terrible sight, a dark version of their futures that they could never have predicted in a million years. Grayfia just crinkled her eyebrows at the two as if in deep thought and confusion, as if seeing the two of them together made her feel new emotions, Asia was the only one to stare at them agape for a different reason, she thought that Venelana was breathtakingly gorgeous.

"Rias, what are you doing here, you too Sirzechs, what are you two doing here," though it doesn't seem like she's put the pieces together like Zen-Aku had, but she did get a realization look, "oh deer, you must have heard that I started to go out on dates with Rouki and tried to meet him."

That was the wrong conclusion and the wrong thing to say at a time like this, because Rias now looked absolutely livid, Sirzechs not far behind her, though he tried to be far more subdued than his sister at least, which still wasn't good, "YOU'RE DATING MY MOTHER," they both screamed at him.

Their surprised, angry, scream at the news finally made it click for the older devil mother, which made her think of something he told her once, "I thought you said your king was an ill-mannered brat who has no idea what modesty is to save her life," she sounded offended now that she knew.

"You forgot the lazy bit," a glare was shot his way, "she never teaches her servants about who is who in the underworld, lets it be a surprise and letting moments like this happen, for instance, not telling me or Asia who her mother is at all, and she has no modesty at all when it comes to clothing."

That got focus off of him and back on said girl who was now trying her best to remain calm under the circumstances, which was just barely, though Venelana did make it a point to look disappointed in her daughter, "Rias, is this true, you never told them about anything important?"

"NO, I did," the rose eyebrow that she got from Rouki, Asia, and her mother spoke otherwise, "I told them about the three way war and the rest I reveal when it happens to be an issue," her brother looked offended as if he wasn't important enough for that information, though he was.

Venelana gave a long drawn out sigh at how this night had gone, "I was planning to just introduce myself to Rouki's daughter tonight, not get caught up in family drama," she placed her hand on her forehead and tried to get rid of a headache she felt coming along, "especially my family drama."

"You never told her your real name," Rias accused of him and got a raised eyebrow in response, "well if you can't even be trusted to not lie to her then I'm not comfortable with my pawn dating my mother, so I think you two should now break up Zen-Aku," she said to the duke org.

His response was to just transform back to his original form let Venelana look up at him, "so that's what you're real name is, I've been meaning to ask," and to the amazement of everyone else, she still reached up and kissed his mask nose before walking forward and to the kitchen.

Rias and Sirzechs were staring after her as if she grew a second head, they just saw their mother kiss the nose of a monster covered with hair and fur, "but, you just kissed him on his masked nose, what about his appearance, doesn't that freak you out a bit to see him like that," Rias asked.

Venelana looked back looking a bit smug, "dear, who do you think convinced your father to grow out that little beard he has now," she asked before she turned to the pot that had the makings of a nice meal in it, it was curry, made to almost perfection, "I like hair on my man, a lot of hair."

Zen-Aku heard Sirzechs and Rias mutter to themselves, "I did not need that image in my mind," with a shiver as well, the duke org just walked forward and checked on his rice that he was making with the curry, it was almost done as well by the time Rias asked, "what are we having?"

"'We' are not having anything," Rias looked offended at not being included in her mother's collective 'we', "Rouki, Asia, and I are going to have the meal we planned on having while you and your brother go back to your place where Grayfia will make you dinner, like was originally planned."

Rias and Sirzechs both looked as if they had been slapped in the face, and when they got their senses back to protest, Grayfia is the one to tell them, "she has a point, obviously Zen-Aku has already met us, therefore the next step is for miss Venelana to meet miss Asia, the family dinner."

"She's right, so the rest of you can get out," Zen-Aku stated as he opened the door for them to walk out of, Sirzechs and Rias glared at him as they left while Grayfia bowed a bit before also leaving, and when the door was closed, "now then Asia, don't you have an introduction to give?"

Asia perked up at that and approached Venelana and bowed, "hello, my name is Asia Argento, daughter to Zen-Aku the wolf duke org general, who you know as Rouki Argento, I like to try new foods, my hobbies include hanging out with my friends and praying to God," que headache.

The older woman just squealed at her introduction before scooping her up in a huge hug, "I know all about you, your father talks about you constantly on our dates, he's told me so many things," she put the dazed girl down so she could get her barring's, "like how you pray before bed. Every night you pray before bed even though at the end you pass out from the pain and your father tucks you in," she gave the girl a softer hug now, "I feel like I know you from just that fact alone, but your father just continues to talk my ear off about how proud he is of you when you train."

Asia was blushing at being talked about on a date, while also beaming at having Zen-Aku being proud of her, her, the timid and shy nun who does nothing but heal the people that he's been beating up, "but all I've done is heal the people that he's been beat- I mean, training."

"True, but he keeps on saying how each time you've done it you get better and it takes less time, so you gradually have been getting better at using your Twilight Healing, he sounds so proud of you," Venelana assures her with a bright smile, loving the girl's reaction to the news.

"Please," Zen-Aku scoffed a bit, "like you don't talk about your own children on our dates, like how Rias is scared of camels, or Sirzechs was put to power too soon to truly experience life without those restrictions, in hindsight I probably should have known they were your children."

"You," Asia began to say quietly with a timid voice as she stepped out of the hug from the older devil and towards the duke org who looked down at her, "you are," she sounded like she was going to cry now, a fear she forgot she had came up, "you are proud of me," he had to say it.

The duke org saw where she was going with this, and it occurred to him that he never actually said the words that the one who is being his daughter should hear, so he looked her in the eyes and said, "yes, I am very proud of you Asia," who then proceeded to surge forward in a hug.

Venelana stood there smiling at the two as the duke org hugged the nun back, it was a great sight, made a bit strange with the smell of burnt curry, wait, "THE CURRY," they all rushed to turn off the oven on instinct, laughing about it afterwards and ordered takeout, eating to the smell of burnt curry.


	8. Training the Cowardly Bishop

Demon Duke Org

Chapter 8

Training the Cowardly Bishop

The next day found all the members of Rias's peerage in front of the sealed off door, and about to unleash the first bishop, "last night my brother insisted for me to release the seal and allow the bishop to leave this area, I'm not sure why, but the bishop refused the offer," Rias explained.

"Such a shame really, considering the child used to be the largest earner we had," Akeno informed them of that fact with a smile as if not bothered by the fact that their biggest profit was just locked up because he did not know how to control his power and Rias was blamed for it.

"With special contracts, the bishop used computers to make them," Kiba added looking serious, which actually was serious, not often you really see a devil adept to technology and make contracts using said technology to make the most earnings in the entire group, impressive.

Just one thing, "why couldn't he continue to make money for the group even inside the seal, being able to use a computer like that should let him be continuously making money since he didn't have to go anywhere anyways," Zen-Aku asked the rest of the group that were here longer.

"Those in a peerage have to be put on a certain list, updated when a change occurs, to make sure that they are not a threat to themselves or others, when a member is sealed they are taken off the 'active' list and put on the 'inactive' list," Rias explained, though not very well, with a glare.

"Which means the power this bishop had must have been fairly dangerous if it needed to be locked away," Xenovia commented in almost amazement, while Irina tried to ignore the glare that the duke org was getting from their king, what did he do to cause the glare, only a few knew why.

Rias began to unseal the door with a red magic circle that destroyed the 'keep out' tape and chains on the lock, "and the seal has been broken," Koneko said in monotone as the tape evaporated away in streams of falling red vapor that turned into red dust at the end.

"Alright, let's see how this goes," Rias said as she moved in and opened the door into a very dark room, that's when they heard a yell and whimpering from everywhere in the dark and strange room before Rias spoke up again, "hello, I'm glad to see you're looking well," she said carefully.

"I don't understand what's going on," the voice of a very young boy said from within the darkness of what looked like a coffin, it was all black with a cross on the cover of it and at its points were pink roses the rest of the room looked like it was a girl's, pink flowers and hearts everywhere.

Zen-Aku saw in the dark so he was able to tell what everything was easily as Akeno walked up and lifted the hood off the coffin and said, "the seal has been broken, so your free to come with us now, okay," she put the lid down as she finished saying that to reveal what was inside and scared.

"No, I don't want to ever leave here, the outside is too scary," a boy with platinum blonde hair and a female school uniform said out as he was trying to be cute while being scared, though it did come naturally to the crossdressing boy, it was annoying how scared the boy was at everything.

Rias went and hugged the little boy from behind before she spoke, "everyone, say hello to Gasper Vladi, the other bishop in my household, he's a first-year student here, and before I had the honor of turning him into a devil, this little guy was actually half human half vampire," she introduced.

"Hm," Zen-Aku hummed in thought from the back and got the boy to finally noticed him, "not the strangest thing I've ever seen, and vampires are known for being pretty boys, not surprising the vampire chooses to dress like that," the duke org commented and got a glare from the boy at him.

"I see that Rias found herself a mut to keep as a pet, good, she gets lonely at night and the company of a dog would be good company," that shocked the rest of the peerage, who knew Gasper had a bite to him, and this is sounding like a rivalry between a vampire and a werewolf.

"I'm nobody's pet pretty boy, I'm using her as a safe haven until I can get out of here safely and not on the run," the duke org replied back and the half vampire jumped up to meet him in the eyes, "and get this straight pretty boy, I'm Zen-Aku, the wolf duke org, not a werewolf as you think."

"I never said you were one mut, but I did think it, though I'm not sure what the difference is since a wolf is a wolf and known for being a wild animal, just like you," this was more courage than the peerage had ever seen Gasper show to anyone before, it was a bit scary, "and don't use her like that."

"She knows I'm using her like that, I'm a lone wolf for a reason, easier to be alone than among other people, though from the sound of things you're a lone vampire yourself, or are you just a scared little coward who can't control their power and had to get locked away," Zen-Aku insulted.

Rias was about to say something when Gasper himself spoke up in his own defense, "yes I'm a coward, but I'll not let some mut see me as such now that I know you're here, I'll train in control for as long as it takes to make sure that you can never again look down on me for anything."

The defiance in his eyes let everyone know that he meant it, Rias smiled as she walked up to the two before a fight could break out, "than we'll start as soon as possible, though this is control and not fighting so I hope our duke org trainer has a method for you," the smile turned glare at said wolf.

"I guess you still don't forgive me or your mother for dating behind your back," Zen-Aku commented and the other peerage members all gasped, except for Asia who smiled nervously at her father saying that now of all times, "you didn't tell them, weren't you scolded for doing that?"

"I was scolded by mother, and then later by both Sirzechs and Grayfia, for not informing my peerage of important things such as who's family is who, who my mother is dating now that her and my father are divorced is not important," Rias sounded like a child at the beginning of that.

Zen-Aku scoffed a bit and began to walk out of the room, when he saw that nobody was following him, he turned to look over his shoulder, "you coming pretty boy, or do you want to get your nails done first," Gasper scowled at the insult but walked with determination, a slight tremble but determined.

They walked with the peerage following them out to the training yard, which was still littered with holes and burned scorch marks from all the times that the duke org was training the others, tree patches were missing, the ground was cracked and boulders were thrown every which way. They're training sessions caused this and it was here where the training of Gasper was going to go, "are you sure we can train safely here, it looks to be about to fall apart and swallow us into the ground at any moment," Gasper stated with a bit of fear with the duke org's back to him.

"Yes," Zen-Aku stated before turning to face the boy, who instantly straightened up as to not show the duke org that he was afraid, "sit down cross legged and close your eyes, like so," Zen-Aku ordered before doing as he said and resting his palms on his knees, sitting straight. Gasper did so and copied his movements as best he could, "you're problem is not physical or magical, being a vampire means your body is more durable on top of also being part devil as well, so your magic also grows as you do, you're problem relies solely on your mental state."

Gasper sighed a bit, "if you knew my past then you'd understand why that is, I was hated by my vampire family and the human world loathed me because I couldn't control my power, both loathed and feared me," the boy didn't like the sound of that, he sounded more like Asia now. "My power is known as the forbidden Balor View, otherwise known as the evil eye that stops the world, they loathed me because when one is stopped they had no idea what happened while frozen, so they both loathed me and feared me because of that power, and I hate it because of that."

"Your fear of what people will think of you is mental, so we will work on it through meditation, delve deep into your psyche and let you confront that fear," Zen-Aku stated and saw him tense a bit, "keep in mind that it is your own mind, you control it, just as you control your own power. Close your eyes," he ordered and the half vampire half devil did as ordered, "concentrate on your center, imagine a long hallway with various doors along it on both sides, these are your worst memories, you open the furthest worst memory you have, what is it that you see when you look?"

Gasper imagined what he was saying as best he could, and opened the door at the far end of the hall, "I see my mother standing over my crib, telling me that I was weak and a danger to her relationship with my father, that I should die," tears were pooling at the corner of the boy's eyes.

"Your mother was a weak willed and vain bitch who thought of only herself, you shouldn't think of her as a mother but an egg donor that helped make you, I want you to exit out of the room and lock the door away with the words 'anger fuel' on them, only enter when you get angry now." The duke org ordered and could see the kid's reluctance but eventual acceptance of what was needed and did as he was told, "now I want you to replace that door with a memory that you get joy out of, but I want it to be from the same time as the bad memory, or the closest in age to it."

Gasper tried to think back to earliest joyful moment in those days and brought up one that he liked, "it was two years later, I was out chasing a butterfly through the backyard, I caught it and I remember feeling such joy that I caught something, and how beautiful it was, I was happy then."

"Then that is the memory of the door that will be there from now on, you can no longer feel the anger or fear of being rejected by your egg donor and now, all you are to see is that beautiful butterfly and remember that joy," Zen-Aku told him and saw good tears fall from the boy's eyes.

That is the training of Gasper for that day, he was to never again feel the anger or fear of those memories and instead is to only think of those things that brought him joy or happiness when those memories started to come up, it was at the end of that now and Rias walked up to them. "Thank you for helping him with his fear," she said with a slight smile towards the duke org and saw the big smile that Gasper had on his face now that his fear was lifted thanks to meditation, "but how will this help him to control his power, is it going to be love is power meditation now?"

"No," Zen-Aku stated as he rose from his sitting position, the boy was still meditating now and on his last door, "I have always found that power such as this works better at the halfway point between anger and serenity, I helped him replace his worst memories so that there is a balance." Gasper opened his eyes then, his eyes shown with his power before they went back to normal, "he has found that balance and as such now only needs to work on his focus and control of the power through training," the boy stood up and rushed over to Rias and hugged her fiercely.

Rias hugged him back and let her head rest on the boy's head, "I'm so sorry I caused everyone to worry, but I'm better now," Gasper said with a smile as some of the tears in his eyes got on her shirt, she just patted his back and soothed him until he calmed down and stopped crying on her.

"Now, after he's rested up some from the mental strain we'll start on group training again, this time with Gasper in the lineup as well," Zen-Aku stated, Rias wanted to object, but the duke org beat her to it, "keep coddling them and they'll never grow, it's tough, but needed to be done."

Rias backed off, knowing that it was needed though she didn't like it any more than she ever did, the rest of the peerage came out as well, they all looked ready for battle, Irina was the first to speak up though, "we'll win against you this time monster, now that we also have the vampire."

"I agree, Gasper will be a great addition to the fight," Xenovia backed her friend up in her statement and pulled out her Durandal, Irina with her Excalibur Mimic, Kiba pulled out his balance breaker and Koneko put her gloves on while letter her tail and ears out, ready for battle now.

"Rias, I think it's time for us to go," Akeno informed the president while walking up to said girl, she didn't come to fight though she wanted her chance to also fight the duke org again and now that Gasper was on their team have a chance at finally beating him, hopefully at least.

"Yes, you're right, if you will excuse us, Akeno and I must leave for a meeting about getting ready for the leader's summit, oh and Kiba, my brother said he wants to know more about your balance breaker, I'd like for you to join us," Rias told him, he looked disappointed, but followed after his king. "Sorry for robbing you of the chance to fight him and thank you, now for everyone else I want you to take over Gasper's training until we get back," she told them and began to walk away and leave the training of the vampire boy to the duke org and transported in a magic circle that Akeno prepared.

Zen-Aku was walking over so stand in the middle of the training field when the rest turned to him after saying bye to their king, he was just standing there, he popped his neck and pulled out his crescent blade, bringing it parallel to the ground yet close to his head, left arm outstretched. Xenovia and Irina charged in with swords drawn while Koneko charged with blue fire on her fists, ready to let loose some senjutsu, Gasper charged in later with a wordless yell for a battle cry, the duke rog smirked to himself before charging in while keeping his blade in the same position.

The first to make contact was Irina, who tried for a swipe with her mimic, it was blocked with the crescent blade in a vertical position, jerked up and Zen-Aku sent an elbow to Irina's midriff causing her to back off clutching her stomach as Xenovia came in for a downward slash. Zen-Aku brought his leg up and kicked the sword off to the side while grabbing Xenovia's throat and throwing her into Irina with just enough time to dodge the right jab aimed for his jaw sent by Koneko, who then swung with the force of the jab to then roundhouse kick him in the chest. That didn't slow the duke org though, he grabbed her foot and spun her around and slammed her into the ground, making a deep impact imprint before hoisting her up and tossed her over to where Irina and Xenovia were getting up, they dodged out of the way of the body and charged.

Zen-Aku would have brought up his crescent blade, but it was locked in place, he looked and saw it covered in a purple glow, signifying that Gasper was using his power on it, forcing the duke org to let go of it and fight the two incoming girls hand-to-hand, Xenovia tried for an upper swipe. He rolled out of the way and jumped over the lower sweep from Irina, sending a back right kick to her gut, he then brought up his left hand grabbed hold of the hands of Xenovia before she could swipe Durandal at him and jabbed his palm out and hit her stomach with the palm of his hand. Koneko soon recovered and came charging in as well and aimed for a left haymaker at his chest, it connected forcing him to stumble backwards as Irina started swiping at him, forcing him to dodge by backing up, when he finally hit a tree she went for a lunge, he rolled out of the way. She impaled the tree, giving him enough time to send a swinging right leg that hit her ribs, later Irina would swear that she heard a crack as some of her ribs broke from the force of the impact, the hit sending her sailing back and hitting another tree, knocking her out of the training session.

Gasper tried to focus his power and forced mimic to stay imbedded in the tree when Zen-Aku tried to remove it to use instead, the duke org grunted in frustration before deciding not to use a weapon again and began charging over to where Xenovia and Koneko were waiting for him. They silently made a plan and Koneko cupped her hands together while Xenovia jumped up and, with grace, planted her foot in Koneko's hands letting the senjutsu user launch the bluenette towards the monster with great force, Durandal would have decapitated him, but he rolled out of the way. Koneko had been charging since she launched Xenovia and tried to double-axe-handle him in the back, but he grabbed her wrists at the last moment and forced them behind her back before lifting up and bending backwards, effectively giving the girl a suplex into the ground headfirst. Xenovia chose that time to enter back into the fray and swipe upwards towards him, he used his strength to push up and spin in midair to dodge the swipe, but she kept coming and tried a downwards swipe next, which is where Zen-Aku pulled out his dagger flute and blocked the blade. The duke org was on the ground with Xenovia on top and pushing the blade down, so he let her bring the blade down by spinning out of the way again and like before, only this time spinning just enough to get out of danger, using her surprise at his actions to drop his heal on her head.

With Xenovia out of the training match as well, that left only Gasper to fight, who looked to be shaking, but held his hands out in front of him regardless, "let's see you take on this," Zen-Aku said as he flung a rock at the boy, who focused and stopped it with ease, but not the next one. That one hit him in the head, causing the boy to lose focus and let the control drop, let the duke org get close to him and when the vampire looked up again, saw that he had the wolf's dagger flute at his throat, "good, but keep focus, you won't always be able to keep an object frozen."

That is when the most unlikely of all people chose that moment to show up, Saji from the student council, "hey guys, having fun I see," he commented as he walked up to them, seeing the bodies of everyone else minus Kiba, Rias, and Akeno, though they didn't look as beat up as usual.

"Saji," Zen-Aku stated as Asia began healing the girls that the duke org had already knocked out, and they had all improved, not as much bruising or broken bones that she had to heal, "what brings you here," he asked and turned, conveniently blocking the boy's view of Gasper.

"Nothing much, but I heard Rias finally released her dangerous Bishop, so I wanted to check things out," that is when said bishop got out from behind the duke org, "another pretty blonde," the boy asked, clearly thinking the vampire was a girl, as many would assume based on that.

"No, well yes, the pretty boy blonde here is actually a vampire," Zen-Aku informed, causing the older boy to get down on his hands and knees in despair at seeing such a pretty thing made to look like that and still be a boy, it wasn't fair in Saji's eyes, he wanted to cry at the news. "Give it a rest, and if you want to stay then you'll train as well, once everyone else gets healed up," the duke org stated as Asia finished up the last of her healing and the others regained consciousness, "you all did considerably better, even got a few hits in, so let's keep on going."

The rest all gained determined expressions, before charging in, Saji didn't really know what to do, but decided he might as well try and show his fellow pawn what he's got, Gasper chose to stay on the sidelines and act as support again and freeze Zen-Aku's weapons when he's about to strike.

* * *

Later

It was getting dark now when Rias, Akeno, and Kiba returned from their meeting with Sirzechs to prepare for the leader's summit, they entered the clubroom first, thinking that everyone met up in there after training, sadly nobody was in there, so they headed outside to see if they were there. The sight was shocking to say the least, it even more of a mess than it was before, more boulders were thrown everywhere, craters and cracks with the bodies of Sona's peerage were in them, smoking but alive, Saji was being crushed by a tree with his absorption line tying his arms together. Tsubaki was laid sprawled out on top of the tree wrapped up with the absorption line as well, apparently it was stretched far enough to wrap both Saji and Tsubaki up, Xenovia was trapped under a boulder with Durandal imbedded into the top of it, Irina was crawling towards her. Gasper was given an atomic wedgie from a tree branch and facing said tree while tied up in vines, Koneko was on the other side hanging upside down by her own tail, with a large bump on her head signaling she was out cold, a few of Sona's peerage was trapped in the cracks on the ground.

The only one still fighting was Sona, though she was failing miserably at trying to subdue the shadow, it easily got past her defenses and with a final play grabbed her face with its left hand and dragged her across the ground and tossed her into a random boulder, knocking her out too. It looked like a battlefield, nobody was spared even a second of reprieve it seemed, nobody could do anything against their foe and at the end it was the only one left standing, the moon showed brightly down and let the figure be seen as the trainer that beat them all into the ground, literally.

Rias had a twitching eyebrow when she saw the sight of everyone humiliated and beaten while smoking or just plain unconscious, "care to explain what actually happened here," she asked her pawn that took down another peerage's king and queen, singlehandedly, again.

Zen-Aku turned to her and began walking towards her, "Saji came in while Gasper and the others were about to start training again," he paused to step over a white haired girl huddled in her small crater, one of Sona's, "I asked if he wanted to train with us, see if he could get stronger. He agreed and not long after Sona came with her peerage to find Saji, he was being held against the boulder over there," he pointed with his left hand to a boulder with an indent on it, "as I gave him repeated knee strikes before tossing him away to block Irina and her Excalibur Mimic." A groan caught their attention and they saw Koneko beginning to awaken, Kiba went to get the girl down and untie Gasper, "Sona and her peerage decided to join in on the training, personally I think it got a bit out of hand," he turned back and looked at the damage that was done to the area.

"A bit," Akeno repeated as she also surveyed the area, find the position her fellow queen was in to be a bit amusing, "I think you went overboard on everything except with Tsubaki over there, could have gone a little rougher," she gave a slight giggle as a blush began to form.

"Down Akeno," Rias commanded her queen as she saw what was about to happen, "go help Asia free everyone so they can be healed," her queen pouted but did as she was ordered, "Zen-Aku, tomorrow Akeno needs your help after school, she'll give you the details, right now lets help." She left to help the peerage and Sona's get lined up for healing from Asia, by the end of it the nun was tired and instantly fell asleep, the duke org had to pick her up and carry her home like she was a child that fell asleep at the park, the girls all thought it was cute, Rias only glared.

* * *

The next day

Zen-Aku was waiting at the entrance to the official shrine when Akeno got there, he was leaning against the post of the entrance gate as she was walking up, she changed into her miko attire as they walked in wordlessly, knowing that he didn't like to talk too much so obliged with kindness. It was after walking through that a voice called down from above, "so this is the Red Dragon Emperor," a golden light began to shine before what could only be an angel with several pairs of golden wings and golden hair came from it, "Zen-Aku, it's nice to meet you, I'm Michael, chief of the Angels."

Zen-Aku had met many different beings in his time, but he had to say, meeting with Michael was by far the least of his favorites, he looked to be the standard angel from the stories but looked can be deceiving, the duke org wordlessly moved past him as Michael descended and headed inside.

The duke org was now sitting down to the right of the shrine, Akeno moved to sit in front of the shrine facing away from it while Michael just moved to stand to the left, letting Akeno sit between them in case it provided the one invited with some comfort at this situation he was now in. Without moving Michael brought forth a golden light that enveloped the room, out of that light came a sword, it looked like one a knight would use, except it had a serrated edge close to the hilt, the guard was pointed towards the blade in the shape of dragon talons, hilt a thin purple thing.

Michael began to explain what the blade was to the duke org "this is the holy sword, Ascalon, this Holy sword has also earned another name, Dragon Slayer, It is a name that the sword's previous wielders quite capably earned, many dragons fell to the power contained in this blade. This weapon was sent to you from on high in the hope that you might assimilate it into your boosted gear," Michael stated to him, he had a smile on his face as he said that, though you could tell the smile was a bit sad, as if he was sad to part ways with such a weapon in his arsenal.

"I appreciate the offer Michael of the Angels but I already have a weapon that I am bonded to, I mean this in no offence, but my crescent blade is a representation of my spirit, to take on another weapon such as this would impeded me in battle," Zen-Aku denied, while grateful for the offer.

"I have heard your reputation as one of the most powerful wielders of the boosted gear, and I would have liked to have had it used to its fullest potential while in your hands, but you do not have to use it, simply let the boosted gear take it in and let it have an edge against any evil dragons. The great war ended large scale fighting, but as you know, we still have small scrimmages, if this is allowed to continue, all will be brought to ruin, it is entirely possible a different power will attack us in all of the confusion, so we must join forces, all of us, or die trying."

Zen-Aku wanted to refuse, but a power boost like that to Ddraig would go a long way against an opponent like Vali, or even a dragon that could attack him in the future, "then I will not ever use the blade, the most I will do is let it power the boosted gear, but I will accept your gift."

"There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy, and this upcoming summit will provide us with a great opportunity for the three great powers to form an alliance and put an end of years of senseless fighting," Michael said with a smile at his answer. "This would not be the first time either, long ago, we all came together and fought as one, we had to end the destruction caused by the red and white dragons' battle," it sounded like he was giving a history lesson now, but the lesson was the same, keep the factions together, to keep dragons in line.

Zen-Aku took off his left gauntlet and held out his black furred hand while bringing out his boosted gear, the sword turned so that the hilt was his left, he reached up and grabbed the sword with his hand, the sword began to glow brighter and the boosted gear began to glow red as well. As he focused his power to make the items bend to his will, the light intensified and soon the angel himself was blinded by the light and had to look away, when it was done and the light faded, all that was left was the glowing gold aura of the red gauntlet to signify Ascalon was in Ddraig.

"It seems that you were right, the blade to Ascalon is no more, your boosted gear now has the power of Ascalon in gauntlet form only, interesting," Michael observed, "I have done what I set out to do, now I shall take my leave," the angel said before he left in a golden flash of a cross.

Zen-Aku turned to Akeno who was sitting there with a smile before getting up to make some tea and explained why she came here, "we came to this temple to perform a ceremony that tailored Ascalon's specifications to you, I say it worked a bit too well because it went smoothly."

The duke org sat down and picked up the teacup that Akeno set down, he concentrated and opened up his mask like a wolf would and drank the tea, sitting the cup down, he saw Akeno's surprised look, "now that we're alone, is this the part where you tell me about your fallen angel side?" She looked shocked for a moment, "Venelana told me about everyone's problems, hoping that I'd be able to help solve them, or help them resolve them," he took another sip of his tea, "but out of all of the stories that she told me, yours probably disgusts me the most," he growled out.

Akeno couldn't help but be surprised by this, "so you agree than, my father is one of the most terrible people that I've met, letting my mother die at the hands of the rest of the clan," she was silenced by the dagger that stabbed into the table that shocked her into stopping her guess.

"No Akeno, you disgust me, not because you're a fallen angel, but because you abandoned your father because you were mad at him for not getting there in time to save your mother, he was working to more than likely help provide and give you a comfortable life, yet you left him. Venelana told me what you told her, you joined up with the devils just to spite him because he lost his wife to her own family, he's a leader to an entire race, sometimes he'd get called away, then he comes home to find a dead wife and a daughter who hates him because he was late. You were and still are just a child, which is why I'm not plunging this dagger through that cold and empty heart of yours right now," he returned his dagger and got up and turned, "you should be ashamed to even insinuate that he never cared for you, it betrays the memory of your mother."

Zen-Aku finally left after that, leaving a girl to cry into her own hands, he was harsh with how he said it, but it had to be said, she was a child and needed to be scolded when you do something wrong, he had no time to deal with the slow and heartfelt way of doing things, only tough love.

One his way down from the shrine he saw Rias walk up as well, "hey, did you get the sword," she asked the duke org when she saw him, she wasn't smiles either, still mad at him for the obvious reason, he briefly wondered if she would stay mad at him even if Venelana and him marry.

"I got Ascalon, yet the blade is no more and from now on it is only existing in gauntlet form inside of Ddraig," he told her and noticed the surprised look, he surprising a lot of people today, "I already have my crescent blade and dagger flute, I don't need or want another sword with me."

"Very well, I guess that is the best I could have asked for from you," she commented and moved to walk up the stairs before stopping and turning towards him, "is Akeno still up there, I don't want to disturb her if she's doing anything important now," she asked the duke org that kept walking.

For a brief moment he debated on whether or not to tell her the truth, before deciding to be honest, "yes she's up there, and she could use a friend right now," Zen-Aku continued down the stairs and ignored her shouts of what happened from Rias before he heard her running up.

* * *

A/N: Next chapter is the leader's summit, this is where i'll introduce Serafall, as well as her contingency prize for being runner up. Before anyone says anything about how I had Gasper act, please note that I did say that I would be diverging from some of the standards that people are use to, and also that Gasper is a vampire who have natural enemies in werewolves, Zen-Aku is a **wolf** duke org, i'm using that as a basis for Gasper's vampire instincts of hate for werewolves to come out.


End file.
